Superhero
by Just Jill
Summary: What is it like to become a Power Ranger? Sylvie knew them years ago: now she wants to become one. Without them knowing she's there.
1. Follow Your Dreams

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Saban, who owns Power Rangers, and any characters you recognize. The idea of the Academy is Sparticus', as is the permission for me to use it. The rest is mine.

Writer's note: This came to me after reading Sparticus' Ranger Academy ( www. paladar. com / fanware / room10 / spartacus5. htm - put it in w/o the spaces). This fic will make much more sense if you have read at least the first chapter of it. I think right after that I saw the episodes with Sylvie, when she started blackmailing Carlos. It occurred to me to wonder what might happen to her with this Ranger Academy, and so this is what I produced, with his blessing. It's not exactly cannon - and takes place eight years after the founding of the Academy, so obviously there are things that are wrong. Think of it as a Fan Fiction based off a Fan Fiction, I guess.

Writer's note two: There are a couple of really obscure things in here; one is that there is a reference to one of my favorite bands. Good luck if you can find it!

1: "Follow Your Dreams" - GTR, When the Heart Rules the Mind

Sylvie Larson trailed behind the group she had been with for the last fifteen minutes, taking everything in, trying to remember how to get to each place they had stopped. Her arms were full of stuff: two uniforms, a datapad to study with that had the outlines of the classes, a hard copy of a map of the academy grounds, papers with various codes on them, and the small bag she'd brought for personal effects. Her arms were beginning to hurt, but that didn't stop her from shifting the whole bunch of stuff to one arm and running her fingers over the smooth material of the ivory uniform that lay on top. She was here, in spite of what Geoff had said, and she was going to graduate.

"Sylvie Larson." She snapped to attention and ran a couple of steps to catch up, her cheeks reddening under the disapproving stare of the green-clad Ranger who had been leading the group. "This is your room. There will be a general meeting and introduction in thirty minutes."

"Yes, sir," she said, and stepped to the doorway as the group moved on.

The room wasn't too small, she decided as she walked in, but it wasn't huge, either. Lockers stood at the heads of the two sets of bunk beds, taller than she and about one and a half feet wide. She set her stuff on the top bunk on the left side of the room, carefully laying her uniforms to one side. A table stood against the back wall, with four chairs around it. A terminal sat in a niche in the wall behind it, and a chord - it looked like a hook up of some kind - ran from behind it, the end resting on the table. There was no sign of a keyboard at all.

Sylvie touched the screen and it turned on, bringing up a menu. "Okay," she said, vaguely amused by the whole thing. "Do I touch the screen, or do I talk?" It didn't answer, and she felt rather stupid. She glanced around self consciously, found she was still alone, and touched the screen for the layout of the Academy. The place was big, and she'd gotten lost as soon as her group had left the main hall. The layout popped up with a dialog box: download to personal datapad?

"Oh! Yeah!" She turned and dug through the stuff on her bunk to find the datapad. She plugged it in, once she'd found the port, and touched the "yes" button. A small scale popped up and she watched the short download complete, backed out to the menu to touch the "stand by" button, and retreated to her bunk. Shoving everything aside, she began to study the school layout.

The door opened and a tall girl walked in, surveyed the room, and set her stuff on the lower bunk on the other side of the room. "Hi," Sylvie said.

The girl spun and looked at her, then her eyes narrowed. "Hello."

"I'm Sylvie."

"Amy." She turned her back on Sylvie, who shrugged and went back to the layout. She looked up occasionally as Amy moved her stuff to her locker, then changed into her uniform and swept her hair up in a bun. Somewhat jealous, Sylvie ran a hand through her own short blonde hair. Now was not the time for that kind of feeling.

The door hissed open and two girls stepped in. One was tall with shoulder length dark brown hair; the second was shorter, with long brown hair held back from her face with a barrette. They checked both sides of the room and looked decidedly disappointed. Sylvie grinned. "Hi. I guess you two wanted to bunk together?"

"Yeah." The taller girl surveyed the room. "Wow. Small."

"Hey, I can change beds, I haven't set up my locker or anything," Sylvie said, jumped down, and gathered her stuff. The two girls exchanged looks, then smiled.

"Thanks," the shorter one said, setting her armful on the lower bunk. "My name is Leia." Sylvie bit back a Star Wars comment.

"You mean, like in Star Wars?" Amy asked, turning around with something of a sneer. Leia nodded and rolled her eyes; Sylvie stifled a giggle. Amy shrugged and went back to whatever she was doing.

"I'm Portia," the taller one said as she set her stuff in her locker.

"I'm Sylvie, and that's Amy," Sylvie said, nodding in the direction of the girl sitting at the table.

"You have ten minutes to get into uniform and to the main hall," Amy told them without turning around again. Sylvie, Portia, and Leia scrambled to change, and Sylvie set her locker combo, stuffing everything but the second uniform in her locker. She took great care to hang that up.

When she turned, ready to go, she found that Amy had already left, and shared a shrug with Leia and Portia. The three of them left the room, but stood just outside their door and stared in shock at the flood of people in ivory uniforms that streamed past. Portia grabbed Leia's arm, and Leia grabbed Sylvie's, and the three of them dove in, following the others. The hall was nearly full when they arrived, and Sylvie strained her eyes to see the figures on the stage. The instructors were on one side, and she picked out Mr. Park and Mrs. Kwan, who had administered parts of her application, but she didn't recognize any of the others. On the other side stood the Rangers she'd met. There was Cassie, Zhane, a pretty blonde woman - oh, wait... Karone - and TJ. It was amazing, seeing them all again, and it brought back the memories she hadn't thought of in a long time. But where was...

The hall went silent as a figure in red stepped up to the podium. Andros, she thought, and it didn't look like he'd loosened up any. Behind him like a bodyguard, dressed all in black and conspicuously _not_ in uniform stood her friend, Carlos.

The shock of seeing him made everything else fade. She hadn't heard from him in years. He'd gotten married when she was twelve; she still had the announcement, as well as the baby shower invitation for her mother, with a note from him for her that had come when she was barely thirteen. Then she'd heard about an accident, and when she'd called the Academy a few days later, they'd told her that Brianna and Harmony were dead, and he was ill. She called back twice a week until they told her he was gone. Gone, and they had no idea, or so they told her, of where, or when he'd be back. Every time she'd called, she'd gotten the same answer. For the last four years, she'd heard nothing. And there he was, apparently guarding Andros from something. He looked stern, as if he'd forgotten how to smile.

Someone touched her arm and she turned to look at Leia, who smiled. "Who caught your eye?" she asked, pulling Sylvie out the door with her. It was over? She looked back to see Carlos standing apart from the others; TJ was already gone.

"Wait, he's done? What did he say?" She couldn't believe she'd missed the whole introductory speech.

"That most of us wouldn't be here in a month, and we were going to wish we'd never come most of the time we were here. Who were you staring at?"

Sylvie sighed. "An old friend. I haven't seen him in a while. It just surprised me, that's all." Staring at him? Oh, great. At least she'd been far enough back that he couldn't have seen her.

"Really? Who?" Portia asked.

Sylvie's mind spun. She didn't really want to get into the whole thing about how she'd met Carlos; it was the most embarrassing thing she'd ever done. Granted, she'd been a stupid eight year old, but please! Blackmailing a Power Ranger? "Just a friend." She shrugged. "I'll... meet you guys back in the room, okay?"

"Are you all right?" Leia asked.

"Yeah, fine. Just in need of think time. I'll see you in a few minutes." She turned down a side corridor and walked down it like she knew where she was going.

In three minutes flat, she was lost. It probably didn't even take that long, but it took her three minutes to notice. She sighed and leaned against the wall. Seeing them had brought everything home for her, remembering the terrifying time in Astronema's Secret City, the terror muted only because she was with the Black Ranger. Then to find out his friend, Andros, was the Red one... She shook her head. She still had nightmares, sometimes, of becoming a data card, of Astronema's face in the window, watching in complete indifference. Pushing herself away from the wall, she tried to retrace her steps. After a minute, she came across a sign that said "Medical" that she was certain she hadn't passed before. That meant people, and that meant directions. She followed the arrow on the sign.

She stepped into the office and into the middle of a war.

"TJ, don't be ridiculous! I am not an invalid! Andros did not say I couldn't leave."

"No, Cassie and Justin did. And right now, they have more authority than he does, by his orders." The large black man stood in the center of the room, arms crossed over his broad chest. Sylvie recognized him, but as far as she could tell, he hadn't changed at all. Well, okay, so he didn't tower over her anymore, but he seemed to have grown bigger, at the same pace as she had. He was just as big as she remembered him.

In front of him stood a slender blonde woman who looked severely ticked. "I'm sick of this! I'm going to go insane in here! I'll even go in a wheelchair if they'll let me, but Teej, I've got to _do_ something!" She was familiar, too; Andros' girlfriend? Yeah, definitely. Sylvie couldn't remember her name.

Someone cleared their throat behind Sylvie, and she whipped around, her face flushing. Andros stood in the doorway, obviously trying not to smile. Behind him, more than half hidden by the closing door, stood Carlos, his back to them. "Can I help you?" Andros asked Sylvie in the stunned silence that followed his entrance.

"Yes, sir. I... got lost, and I'm not sure how to make it back to my quarters from here." Inside she was screaming in panic. I didn't mean to get directions from the head master! Please don't let him ask my name!

He smiled and gave her concise directions, and Sylvie thanked him. On her way out, hand trailing on the door, she paused and looked at Carlos, curiosity waging its own war in her. He looked back at her impassively, with no recognition in his eyes. She'd expected that; she wasn't eight or even thirteen anymore. He turned his head to look into the room, and she caught sight of a scar down the right side of his face, along the hairline. Where had he gotten that?

"Ash, I'm not getting in the middle of this," she heard from Andros, then Carlos reached out and pulled the door from her hand, closing it firmly. She walked down the short hallway to a main corridor, got out of his sight, and ran.

She stopped inside her room and leaned against the wall as the door closed. "Oh, stupid, stupid, I can't believe it, of all the people to run into!" she yelled in frustration.

"Where'd you go?" Leia asked. She, Portia, and Amy all sat around the table, studying something on the computer screen.

"Oh, I got lost." She pushed away from the wall. "The Headmaster was in a good mood; he gave me directions back." She opened her locker and took out the datapad, and, digging into the bag she'd been allowed to bring, her old worn and well loved doll, Delilah.

"You met the Headmaster? Is he as handsome as the images in the front hall?" Portia asked.

"What did he say?" Leia asked, shooting her friend an amused glance. Amy rolled her eyes, looking slightly scornful.

"I wound up in Medical, and he came in behind me. I have never been so embarrassed! He probably thought I was eavesdropping." She crawled up on the bed, set Delilah against the wall, and started up the datapad, opening it to the Academy layout. That was not going to happen again! "I just hadn't had the chance to ask the two in Medical for directions when he showed up," she mumbled.

"Hey, don't worry about it," Portia said. "He doesn't know you."

Yes, he does, Sylvie thought, but didn't say anything to her roommates. She was glad enough that he hadn't recognized her. She didn't want anyone thinking she'd gotten in and graduated because she 'had an in' with the founders of the Academy. She wanted to do it on her own merit, so that no one had a question about it.

That night, Sylvie huddled under the blankets with Delilah. She was glad she'd thought to bring her; the doll had been with her during the most terrifying adventure of her life so far, and she was a comforting presence during nightmares. Especially the ones she expected to have the next couple of days. Not only that, but she kept the secrets Sylvie whispered to her. A great majority of them were about the Rangers.

The next morning, classes started, and Mr. Park's Combat class was first. And she'd thought his part of the application was hard! She wanted so badly just to crash right then, but Strategy was next.

Strategy was taught by a petit woman with light brown hair, who introduced herself as Kimberly Hart. The course outline showed not only defensive strategy, but strategies to look for in the enemy. It included such things as being evil, having a spell cast on you, methods of breaking a spell, etc., and as Sylvie read down the list, she wondered who these things had happened to. There was even a section on monsters, and how to figure out how to defeat them. With a guest lecturer: William Cranston. She figured she was going to like this class a lot.

After that was Teamwork, and watching her roommate Amy, Sylvie wondered how she'd do in there. She didn't seem to be able to warm up to anyone. They were divided into pairs to complete tasks, with the strong injunction from Mr. Scott that this was NOT a competition between groups. Sylvie caught herself casting glances at other groups to see if they were done before she was. That was something to work on, for sure.

Lunch was long enough to relax and make her brain calm down. She found Leia and Portia and sat next to them, across from two guys. "Man, I thought I was in shape," the blond one moaned, rubbing at his upper arm.

"Yeah. My sensei said that Mr. Park was hard, but this is ridiculous," his red haired companion agreed.

"It's going to save lives," Sylvie pointed out. "Not just yours, either."

"Huh. He didn't have this," the first said, waving distractedly at the school, "and he made it fine." Sylvie chuckled.

"Yeah, but he stayed on Earth. I'm Sylvie." She extended a sore arm across the table, and he shook her hand.

"Mackenzie. Call me Mack, everyone else does. This is my cousin, David."

"This is Leia, and Portia."

David grinned. "Nice to meet you ladies. And don't listen to Mack; he likes to complain."

"Where are you from?" Portia asked.

"Angel Grove. My sensei knows most of the teachers here; I guess he went to school with them. He warned me about them," David said.

"Mack?" Leia asked.

The blonde flushed and mumbled something inaudible.

"What?" Portia asked.

David laughed and clapped his cousin on the back. "He's from Oklahoma, and he's afraid everyone will have the bad taste his roommates did, to break into the Theme from "Oklahoma", and serenade him."

"It wouldn't have been so bad if they'd at least known the words," Mack whined faintly, with a sheepish grin. Sylvie laughed.

"I promise not to do that," Leia said, "if you don't say anything about my name. I've heard enough jokes about wearing my hair in buns to almost make me want to go postal."

Mack grinned at her. "Deal."

Science was taught by Cestro, a being from Aquitar, and he was her first look at an alien-looking alien. Monsters she'd seen, but this was not a monster, and Andros, technically, was an alien; so were Zhane and Karone. They just didn't look alien. Cestro's class covered not just science, but different cultures and differences in technology. Sylvie's brain felt full, and she still had one more class.

Philosophy with Mrs. Kwan dealt with other cultures more than Cestro's class. Sylvie's eyes widened as she realized it took in all the little... details of getting along on another planet. Not another country, another planet. It was dizzying, really, and it took her some time to get her mind back on the class. From the look of faintly amused resignation on Mrs. Kwan's face, it was not the first time something like that had happened.

After that was an hour until dinner, and Sylvie went back to her bunk and the layout of the Academy. She'd figured out the night before where she'd gone wrong, and was mapping out ways to get around. "Hey, Sylvie, who was so interesting yesterday?" Leia asked.

"Didn't we go through this?" Sylvie asked, her mind on the map she was making.

"No, you didn't tell us who he was," Portia said. Sylvie turned to look at them.

"He was a friend. I lost my older brother to cancer, and he stepped in to fill the void." She winced slightly. "Then my friend was in an accident, and never came back. I saw him again, at the assembly, and it surprised me." She turned back to her datapad and switched over to her science assignment. They seemed to get the hint and left her alone, turning back to Amy's computer tutorial.


	2. Are We Living for an Uncertain Future

2: "Are We Living for an Uncertain Future" - Erasure, Hallowed Ground

Andros hated the beginning of a new semester. He knew what the headaches were going to be, and when they were going to happen. He sank down on the couch and sighed. At least he would be able to be close to Ashley; Cassie and Teena had been kind enough to set aside rooms for him. Especially after what happened last time...

"I can tell what you're thinking about. One day, I'm going to get a picture of you with that look on your face, and you can see what you look like." Ashley sat beside him and laid her head on his shoulder, and he pulled her close to him. He was worried about her; she was beginning to look pale again.

"I'm just so scared it's going to happen again, Ash. It was bad enough losing..." She covered his lips with a finger, and he fell silent. Losing the baby had been bad enough, but he'd almost lost her the same night. Two days before had been Carlos' accident, and his near fatal brush with the Color Withdrawal. Everything at once had almost been too much for him to bear.

"How's Carlos doing?" It didn't surprise him that she'd followed his train of thought; she did that a lot. He was getting good at following hers, finally, after 6 years or so of marriage.

"He won't talk to me. He seems to be doing fine, until something happens..." He shook his head. "TJ says he won't talk to him, either. He was never this quiet."

"I wish I could just... beat him over the head, or something." She sounded frustrated.

He chuckled. "I know. But don't, okay?" His hand covered her stomach, and the barely noticeable bulge there. She'd begin to show soon. "I don't want you in danger. Wait it out, and if he's still here when you've recovered, you can do it then."

She mock growled at him. "I'm going crazy," she said. "It's only been two weeks, and I know I have to be careful, and available for observation, but Andros, I can't be this cut off."

He should have known. "Ashley, I don't know what to tell you." She rubbed at the nutrient patch on her arm, and he wondered if she needed another. He was sure Cassie had given them extras, just in case she did, but he wasn't sure where they were. "The almighty doctor has spoken. I'm just her boss, leader, whatever." He'd almost given up trying to define his role in Cassie's life. "Friend. And she says you can't exert yourself. She defined that, not me, and she's the one in authority over this. Besides," he added as she opened her mouth to protest, "Justin agrees with her, and she's taking orders from him." He chuckled. "And both Cassie and TJ are about to take Carlos up to the simudeck and beat on him. Chances are very good, though, that he knows that and is avoiding them. And Adam, never mind Justin." He shrugged. "Now, back to your boredom..." He kissed her. "You could help Karone with the paperwork."

"She said no." He raised an eyebrow at her. "Well, I asked. She said no."

"Hm. Medical should be getting busy, if the complaints I've heard are any indication. I can't remember another group of students complaining so much about Adam's class."

She chuckled. "Did you know you say that at the beginning of every semester?"

He could feel himself blushing. "No, I didn't."

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"Low stress? Not likely. Besides," he added, kissing her again, "I have enough distractions, I don't need another one." She laughed.

"Okay, okay, I get the point." She looked at him, then brushed a stray hair out of his face. "Have I told you I love you yet today?"

"No," he almost whispered. He was so scared he'd lose her, afraid this would be the last time she'd ask him.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you, too."

When he left their rooms the next morning, Carlos and TJ stood outside, waiting. They almost looked like two best friends having a fight, both studiously ignoring the other. Sighing in frustration, he nodded in greeting and started for his office. Carlos fell in step behind him as always, leaving TJ to guard the door.

"Who was that girl?"

Andros nearly tripped in surprise. "Which girl?" He certainly hadn't expected Carlos to initiate conversation; ever since he'd quite literally appeared in Andros' office, Carlos had hardly said anything at all unless asked a question, and even then his statements had been sparse.

"The one in Medical, who left yesterday just after we got there."

"I don't know. Why?" He could find out, if it meant that much to him, anything to keep him talking.

There was silence behind him for a minute. "She... There was something familiar about her, that's all."

"Jerome could probably find out for you," Andros offered.

"Hm," was all the answer he got, and Andros didn't try to press him.

Zhane met them at Andros' office, and he looked worried. "We caught sight of people snooping around your house, but they didn't try to go in or anything," he reported, once Andros was settled in. "Have you gotten anymore threats?

Andros shook his head. "One more, in yesterday's mail."

Zhane scowled. "Ashley didn't see it?"

"No. I made sure of that."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"We aren't leaving the school, and if Cassie and Justin have anything to say about it, Ashley is stuck in Medical." He sighed. "And going crazy."

Zhane chuckled. "And driving you insane in the process."

"No..." The smile faded from his face. "I'm so scared for her." He leaned back. "All I need to do is fall apart again."

Zhane smiled. "_That_ is what I'm here for. Relax a bit, okay? Justin is supposed to get back sometime next week, which will make things go easier, at least a little bit. Droz was saying something about..." He paused, thinking. "About a sentient machine. Adam, Jason and Skull all went a little pale, until he said it wasn't from the Machine Empire. Although why Skull would know about it..." He shrugged.

"A sentient Machine? Like Storm Blaster?"

"I don't know. He wants to talk to you about it, when you get the time." He smirked. "He knows it will be a while."

Andros answered his smirk with a wry grin. "Good. Because it will be a while." He paused. "Can you handle it?"

The question wiped the smirk off of his friend's face. "No."

"No? Why not? You'll have to, one of these days, might as well get practice now." He took pains to sound completely reasonable. "You take a look at it, find out what's going on, and give me a report."

"I'm dealing with the threats," Zhane muttered.

"Is it safe for Jerome to look at?"

"No." This second no came out faster than the first.

"Then put him in charge of security for a while, he won't mind, and talk to Droz."

Zhane sighed. "All right, all right." He eyed Andros for a moment. "You enjoyed that far too much, you know?"

"I'm in charge and under a lot of stress. I'm allowed to enjoy things sometimes." He finally grinned. "Besides, what can it hurt?"

"Me?" Zhane said.

"Ah..." Andros' thoughts drifted for a minute. "How's Karone? I haven't talked to her in a while."

"Swamped. But her job right now is more mobile than anything, so she had to tell Ashley no when she offered to help."

"I know." Andros grimaced. "She told me. She's going crazy, and that's putting a lot of strain on her, too. To go from such intense activity to almost none has got her in knots."

Zhane shook his head. "I don't know what to tell you. I wish I did."

"Yeah..." Andros sighed and shrugged. "Go tell Jerome he's in charge for the next couple of hours, and check out this machine that Droz is so interested in. If you can, give me a report after lunch." Zhane nodded and turned to leave. "Hey, Zhane," Andros said, stopping him. "Thanks."

Zhane turned around and grinned. "Sure, Andros." He left. As the door closed behind him, Andros noticed that he stopped to talk - try to talk - to Carlos, like he did every time. Andros shook his head and started on the mounds of paper work that accompanied the beginning of every semester.

* * *

Writer's Note: I don't usually respond to comments on this website - there just isn't a convenient way to do it - but I got a review that I really appreciated. Jeanka: I hope this continues to live up to your expectations (but keep in mind, it does diverge from what Sparticus wrote). Thank you for reviewing.


	3. Memory Remains

3: "Memory Remains" - Metallica, The Memory Remains

Zhane started awake at a soft cry from his wife, and tightened his grip around her. She had fisted his shirt up in her hands and seemed to be struggling with something. "Karone," he whispered. "Karone. Wake up."

Her eyes opened, blurry from sleep and frightened. There was a pause, then she sobbed, broken hearted, into his chest. This happened more than he liked, and much more often than he told Andros about. Fortunately, it happened only when she was really tired - like the beginning of the semester, and just before it ended. Unfortunately, everyone was stressed at that time, including him, and he felt that he couldn't be there for her as much when that was the case. He let her go, stroking her blonde hair. Finally, she calmed down, sniffling a little as the tears tapered off. "What's wrong?" he asked gently.

"I had a nightmare," she stuttered.

"What happened?"

She took a deep, shuddering breath, and let it out in a sigh. "It was the Secret City," she said softly.

Oh. One of those, a memory from before. Her memories from the time she was "programmed" were vague, except in her nightmares, and she refused to let anyone help her with them. He tightened his grip around her. "What happened?" he asked again.

"Turning people into data cards." She backed out of his grip just enough to catch his eyes. "I didn't want to," she said. "But it was like I was caught in a corner of my own mind. Andros and Cassie both tried to get me to stop, but I couldn't, it was that programming..." She took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "When Darkonda... cyborged me," she broke off with a slight laugh, "I, Karone, Astronema, the real me, didn't want to do that. Because... because I knew Andros didn't want me to. Because he considered it wrong. But I didn't have control over the majority of me." She took a deep breath, this one much steadier. Zhane echoed it in relief. This was new to him, it was the first she'd ever spoken of it.

"The bad part was," she continued before he could prompt her, "there was a little girl with a doll in one of the first groups."

"Sylvie," Zhane said. The panic in Carlos' voice on that whole adventure had been incredible. It had affected Andros to some extent, the others less. Carlos had been driven. He sighed softly. He didn't want to think about Carlos now; it was too frustrating. "So, what brought the dream on?"

"I did inspections yesterday," she said. "One of the girl's rooms had a well loved doll in it."

"But why would that cause a nightmare?" He'd wound up asking for help from the resident psychiatrist, simply to help Karone get through these nightmares that kept popping up. There were fewer now, to be sure, but he didn't know if they'd ever go away.

"Most of my life, I didn't have dolls." She smiled, reaching up to brush his face with her hand. "I don't remember many toys at all... Ecliptor had to work as hard as you do, to get me to change."

"I had an edge, I think," he said softly, smiling. "You want to, now."

"Yes..." She sighed. "So, the only doll I remember really well, is the little girl's doll from the Secret City. She was the only child that young... how did that happen?"

"She was with Andros and Carlos when they were caught."

"Ah..." There were times she still sounded like Astronema, though they were few and far between. Zhane was just as glad that Andros was rarely around for those. "That's why you Rangers were so determined. I had wondered," she said softly.

"Determined," he repeated. "If I hadn't known better, I would have thought she was Carlos' sister. He was pretty upset." He chuckled.

"Why?"

With much amusement, Zhane related the story of how Carlos and Sylvie met, and how he'd taken her under his wing. To his relief, she was laughing by the end of his tale. "Then came that accident, and he disappeared. She called once a week for almost six months, and Bulk said it about broke his heart to have to tell her every week we didn't know where Carlos had gone. She finally just quit calling."

"Has he tried to contact her since he's been back?"

Zhane frowned. "No. At least, I seriously doubt it. I'm not sure if he was more attached to Ashley or to Sylvie, but he won't even look at Ashley." He shook his head. He did NOT want to talk about Carlos. "Are you feeling better?"

"A little better, yes. Enough to go back to sleep, anyway." She did sound sleepy.

He lay awake long after she'd fallen asleep, trying to figure out ways to help her get over these stupid nightmares without letting Andros know she was having them. He was WAY too preoccupied right now to deal with it.

The next morning, he went back down to the Pit to try to get more information about the machine one of the teams had brought in. Andros had taken one look at his report and nearly spitted him; not enough information. So this time, he took a datapad and prepared to take down every little detail he could get. It looked to him like a horse, although Damon had mentioned once it reminded him of the bad guy in Terminator 2 - whatever that meant. He hadn't understood Damon's explanation of the movie, and hadn't had time to watch it. Besides, watching films in 2D always gave him a head ache. Holovids were much easier on the eyes.

The machine stood off to the side, in an area Droz had rather unwillingly let it have. It took him three times to find it; it blended into the machinery around it almost as well as the Phantom when he was invisible. Before moving closer, he observed it until it turned to him, then he walked over. It never hurt to be polite. He didn't think it would speak to him; it hadn't yesterday.

"I sure wish we knew why you were here," he murmured softly, checking it over visually. The datapad beeped at him, and he took a look at it, then a second one. 'Is this all you have about me?' was typed clearly on the screen.

Zhane blinked. "Are you talking to me?" he asked. There was no answer. "Voice recognition, type what you hear," he muttered, and the datapad beeped at him. "I... yes. I guess." His words showed up clearly on the screen of the datapad, and he pressed save almost convulsively.

'You were here yesterday.'

"Yes. What you find here is just from my observations." He suddenly grinned. "I'm Zhane, by the way. Current Silver AstroRanger, if inactive."

'I am Chameleon.'

Zhane's eyebrows raised in surprise. He'd heard of this race. Not much was known of them, because they were hard to find. He chuckled to himself. It had taken quite a while the day before, and he was certain he'd found it only because it wanted him to see it. "Is that your name?"

'It will do.'

Zhane nodded. "Mind if I ask a few questions?"

'No.'

He looked around, then perched on an electric part that looked big enough to hold him. "Great. What are you doing here?"

The machine looked vaguely uncomfortable, a strange sight. 'I was asked to... observe you. We want to learn about you.'

"Humans?" Sometimes he forgot he wasn't from Earth. He didn't bother to correct himself.

'Rangers. We have heard of you, and wish to know if anything we have heard is true.'

Zhane nodded. "That depends on your source of information," he said lightly. "All right. But this must be an exchange of information," he said.

There was a pause. 'An exchange of information?'

"What you found there was all we have on your race. Can we study you? At least as far as we can, with you being here on your own?"

The Chameleon paced away from him, silent. Waiting was not Zhane's favorite thing to do, but he quelled every instinct to fidget. When it started back towards him, he remembered to hit save again. 'I believe that would be an acceptable trade.'

"Great." He bounced to his feet. "First thing is to make sure..." He paused. "Would it help to have a translation device... connected to you?"

'What do you mean?'

Zhane began his own pacing; he couldn't help it. Movement had always helped him think. "I was thinking of the collars some of the students wear." Make that one, he thought, and pushed the thought of Weelo away. "If I can come up with a design that will allow you to communicate with anyone around, will that help?"

The Chameleon scraped its right forefoot on the floor. 'Yes. That would be helpful.'

"Okay. I'll have to talk to Andros - he's the head master - and find out what kind of stuff might be useful for you to know. Certainly any of the press releases," he mumbled, almost to himself. "Oh. And a dictionary might help." He grinned self-consciously. "You would not believe how many strange words there are in this language."

'I would.' There was the hint of laughter, and Zhane laughed back.

"Yeah, well, you're getting those from the mind of a Kerovian who is mostly unfamiliar with any phrase that isn't his own or has something to do with Rangering or Security."

'Security. I am safe here?'

"As safe as the rest of us; as safe as we can make it." He grinned. "Let me get you a... level of clearance and a ... translator, for lack of a better word, and that should get things going."

'And my end of the exchange?'

Zhane stopped as if clubbed. "Oh. Right. I guess... electronic form of the application, and we'll see what questions we have from there." He smiled. "I'll make sure you get this by lunch. Is there anything else you need?" He was thinking food or any other kind of sustenance, but Chameleon indicated no, that he was fine. "All right. I'll be back as soon as I can," Zhane said, and made his way back to the main complex, mind spinning.


	4. Cause or Symptom of Happiness

4: "But is Security After All a Cause or Symptom of Happiness" - Dream Theater, Only a Matter of Time

Jerome Stone settled his elbow on the now well worn corner of his desk pad. Not much was happening this semester, which was rather nice. The bank of screens in front of him gave him a view of just about every part of the Academy, most of them changing viewpoints. A couple remained steady: the one on the Headmaster's office, and the one that was wherever Ashley Hammond was. It was currently lunch, so most of the rooms were empty except, of course, the Commissary.

The intercom next to him beeped. "Lt. Stone?"

"Yes, Bulk?" No matter how many times he told Bulk, Skull, and most of the rangers - current, former, and inactive - that he was no longer a Lt., they still called him that. And most of the cadets had picked up on it.

"There's a cadet out here who wants to speak to you. She's asking questions about the surveillance cameras."

"Send her in." He signed off and turned his chair to face the door as a tall blonde girl walked in. She was pretty, muscular, and looked almost lost. "Hello. How may I help you?"

She smiled a little nervously. "You have cameras in all the rooms, right?" she asked. "I mean, the class rooms?"

"Yes."

"Are they on all the time?"

"Yes."

She took a deep breath. "Yesterday, around... 10:30, Mr. Scott performed a really cool defensive move in the Teamwork class. I was wondering if you caught that, and if I could get a copy of it on my datapad. I'd like to learn it, if I can."

Jerome smiled. "You could just ask Jason if he'll teach it to you," he suggested. The girl shook her head.

"No, I don't want to bother him." She even had the grace to blush a little.

"Yesterday around ten thirty," he mused, and turned to the log on his desk. "Have you had lunch yet?"

"No, sir, I wanted to get this done first."

"Well, it's going to take me a while. Why don't you go down and eat, and I'll have this for you to download when you're finished, okay?"

She hesitated a moment, then nodded. "All right. Thank you." She left, closing the door behind her. As soon as she was gone, he pressed the button on the intercom.

"Bulk, let her in when she comes back."

"Yes, sir," came the response, and Jerome smiled. Something about those boys really made his day.

He'd found what she was looking for in a few minutes - she was right, it had been impressive, a combination kick and throw - and turned his attention to the video screens before him. All was quiet, everything proceeding as usual, until a camera clicked on that had been on standby. He watched, curious, as Carlos and TJ faced off, wishing he could hear what they said. Without warning, TJ struck at Carlos, then they were exchanging blows, and he wasn't good enough to know if they were just sparing or if they were fighting for real.

A gasp behind him was his first clue that he wasn't the only one watching the fight, and he turned to see the girl who'd come in earlier. Her eyes were glued to the screen, watching the blows the two men traded. "Pretty intense," Jerome said.

"Yeah. I didn't know he could fight that well. I think he's improved," she said, almost in a daze, then she shook her head, breaking the hold the fight seemed to have on her. "Did you get the chance to find that?" she asked, almost timidly.

"Yes. And you were right. That was an impressive move." He connected her datapad to his consol and downloaded the requested data. "Which of them has improved?" he asked off hand as he handed it back to her. To his surprise she blushed furiously.

"I've never seen the Blue Ranger fight. At least, not out of uniform," she added, almost shyly.

"So, you know Carlos." There was a story there, and he was suddenly very curious about this girl.

"Once," she said shortly. Her eyes flickered back up to the camera, where the two men had either called a truce or were taking a breather before starting again. At any rate, they were standing across the room from each other, and Carlos was leaning against the wall. Jerome smiled.

"He's not the same." He sighed. "Good luck on learning that. And I'm sure Jason wouldn't mind teaching you."

She shook her head. "Thanks again," she said softly, and left his office, casting one last glance at the screen.

He followed her gaze. TJ was gone from the room, and Carlos sat slumped against the wall he'd been leaning against. After a short pause, he touched his intercom. "Bulk. Can you do me a favor?"

"Sure, I'll try, anyway.

"Get someone to cover your position, go to room 23, and make sure Carlos is okay. He knows you, and I don't think he considers you a threat to him." He certainly seems to consider everyone else a threat, or something.

"You got it, Lt. Stone. Out."

Jerome watched as Bulk appeared at the doorway. Carlos was still slumped against the wall but looked up. Bulk said something, Carlos replied, and after a minute, Bulk left again. Jerome sighed.

Bulk knocked before entering. "Lt. Stone?"

"What did he say?"

"That he was fine. He told me to thank you for checking up on him." He shrugged. "Something's up with him, but he wasn't going to tell me what it was."

"Thanks," Jerome said, and turned back to the screens. He half noticed, half an hour later, that the room was empty again, and wondered distantly what had brought that on.

"Hey, Jerome," a young voice interrupted his thoughts, and he turned to smile at Justin.

"Justin! How's your dad?"

"Happily on his honeymoon. They'll stop in when they get back." The twenty-one year old genius lounged against the door frame, grinning. "What about you?"

Jerome thumped the arm of his wheel chair. "The last tests came in," he said, no longer depressed about the news. He'd had some months, plus two or three batteries of tests to prepare him for this. "I'm in this for the rest of my life."

Justin's smile straightened. "I'm sorry."

Jerome shrugged. "Well, it's not like I'm out on the street begging for food. And this isn't the most exciting job... well, okay, scratch that," he grinned. "Sometimes I get an eyeful from the science lab, and there was an impressive move done yesterday. But frankly, I'm glad to be here. I feel like my job hasn't really changed, just... I know all about you, now."

Justin nodded. "Still... Ranger-related injuries are hard enough to take, never mind the ones that we really can't do anything about." He sighed. "Especially drunk drivers." He shook his head. "Anyone get anything out of Carlos yet?"

"I think TJ might have gotten a little blood, but other than that, no, I don't think so."

"Blood?" For an instant, he looked like the lost twelve-year-old that, for a reason Jerome couldn't comprehend at the time, liked to hang out with high school seniors.

Jerome nodded. "They were fighting a while ago. I couldn't tell if it was a real fight or just a spar."

He seemed to absorb the information, then took a deep breath. "How's Ashley?"

"If what Zhane says is true, and I'm sure it is, she's going crazy."

"Taking Andros with her, right?" Justin grinned. "Not that his is a far drive, of course."

Jerome laughed. "Droz has got something for you to look at, as soon as you change out of the nice clothes. Zhane did a report for Andros, and I made sure a copy made its way to your desk. Take a look at it. I think you'll enjoy it."

Justin nodded. "I will. I think I heard something about it. I'm going to go change before I lose my mind completely."

"Check in with Andros, too. He's waiting for you."

"As ever. See you later." Justin turned to leave, then turned back. "Hey, Jerome. I'm glad you're here," he said, and stepped out the door. Jerome turned back to the screens in front of him, smiling slightly.

* * *

Jeanka: I promise, we'll get to Sylvie. She keeps showing up, though, even when it's not her pov (and thanks for reviewing - I really appreciate it!). 


	5. Bring This Poor Dog in from the Rain

5: "So You Bring This Poor Dog in from the Rain" - Metallica, Poor Man's Lyric

Cassie didn't think she had ever been this furious with a teammate. "You what?" she demanded of TJ, watching as his wife patched him up.

"We... got into a fight." He shrugged, looking more down than she'd ever seen him. "It was inevitable, Cass. He's been impossible!"

"Calm down, TJ, or this will hurt," Teena said evenly, meeting his eyes. "And I mean it."

"Ashley's been threatening to do it, everyone's on edge and he isn't helping any."

"Neither are you," Cassie growled. "If you look like this, what does he look like?"

"Not much better. Ouch." He winced. "But not worse, if that makes you feel any better."

"Was he this much of a wimp when you guys started?" Teena asked, glancing at Cassie.

Cassie just shook her head, ignoring the question and the irritation it caused. She needed to find out what was going on with Carlos. "If he looks as bad as you do, where is he?"

"I told you he's been impossible!" TJ started to get up, but a warning glare from Teena calmed him down again. "I don't know."

Cassie took a deep breath. "So, what was this fight about?"

TJ looked away from her, and Cassie thought he looked embarrassed. "Nothing," he mumbled.

Cassie grabbed his chin and pulled his head around, ignoring Teena's startled "hey" as the movement knocked her hands away. "It was about something, TJ, and I want to know what it was."

TJ sighed. "I just wanted him to talk to me. I wanted a reaction. I hoped..." He shook his head. "I asked him to talk to Ashley, at least. He said no, it wasn't worth it..." His eyes dodged from hers. Cassie let him go, and Teena started her ministrations again.

"Have you got him under control?" Cassie asked. Teena nodded; she finally seemed to have realized that this went beyond her and her husband. "Good. I'm going to go find the other idiot and find out what's going on with him." She turned and strode from the room.

She hated it when he came in like that. She'd ruined her chances with TJ, and hadn't realized she'd done it until it was too late. If only Teena hadn't been one of the students to come up to study the effects of the Color Withdrawal after Carlos' accident... Cassie sighed and started for Lt. Stone's office. He could tell her where Carlos was.

"You could have just called," Lt. Stone told her as he started the search to find her errant friend.

"Yeah, well, I had to get out. Ashley's sleeping." She leaned against the consol next to him, watching with interest how he worked. She missed doing work like this, but she had chosen the medical field. It was a good choice, most of the time.

"It looks like... he's in his room," Lt. Stone said. "Last record is of him in the hallway just outside."

"Great." She touched his shoulder. "Thanks."

"Take some bandages. He's pretty beat up."

"Yeah," she said, pausing at the door with a wry grin twisting her lips, "I saw the other guy." She could hear him laughing as she closed the door behind her.

She knocked on Carlos' door, and when he didn't answer, she tried it. It was locked. Of course. Cassie glared at it for a minute, then touched her communicator and called up to Zhane. "Could you open Carlos' door, please? I don't know if he's in there, but it's locked, and I need to see if he's all right. Call it a medical override, if you would."

"You got it, give me a minute." She waited, then the door beeped and slid open.

"Thanks, Zhane." She stepped in and looked around.

"Go away, Cassie." Carlos sat on the bed, shirtless, in the midst of trying to clean a cut on his shoulder. She calmly took the cloth out of his hands and set about cleaning him up.

"Why didn't you come to Medical?" she asked, ignoring his injunction for her to leave.

"Because I didn't want to explain." He glared at her, his dark eyes unreadable. It was like he was looking at a hostile stranger, and it made her both angry and uncomfortable.

"Explain what?"

"Anything."

She glanced at him, one eyebrow raised, then went back to tending his cuts. He didn't want questions, she wouldn't ask any, but it was about killing her to not know his side of the story. Once finished with his torso, she turned her attention to his face. "You shouldn't let TJ hit you so much," she said gently.

He glared at her. "I didn't ask him to."

"No? He seems to think you did. If not right out, then certainly by the way you acted."

"Just leave me alone, and everything will be fine," he muttered.

"We can't do that, Carlos. You're our friend, even if you won't admit it." She tried another tactic. "There's a list of messages for you from the time you left. Have you looked at them?"

He drew back from her hands, grabbing them when she tried to go back to bandaging the cut above his left eye. "Messages? You kept messages for four years?" he asked, incredulous.

She shrugged. "What else are we going to do with them? We couldn't forward them, we didn't know how to reach you. We figured you'd come back some time, so we kept them on file. You can ask Bulk for them." She pulled her hands from his grip and went back to the cut. "We never found someone to take the morpher you left behind." She wanted him to say something, anything about where he'd been, what he'd done, even explain why he'd left so abruptly.

He didn't answer, hissing once in surprise when she put hydrogen peroxide on a particularly bad cut. "Where did you get that scar?" she asked casually as she put a bandage across another future scar on his right cheek. The scar it paralleled had drawn her attention from the time he'd stepped out of Andros' office when he'd arrived.

"From a job." He obviously didn't want to talk about it. Didn't he know that a mysterious man was the most intriguing thing to a woman, even if she wasn't interested in him romantically? Which she wasn't. He was a friend, a good one, and a teammate, and she hated watching him ruin himself.

"You know, you didn't used to be so secretive."

"I didn't used to be a lot of things I am now," he said evenly, and his eyes dodged from hers. Was that guilt in them?

Cassie sighed, giving up for now. She hadn't really realized he could be this stubborn. "Fine. Just remember, we are your friends, and we will listen to you talk it out, okay? It won't matter what you've done." She finished with the last cut and stood to go. "I'll have Bulk put the messages out so you can get them. The password will be Thunder - I know no one is using that one." She stopped at the door. "I want to see you in medical in two days for a quick check up."

He didn't answer as she left. He didn't even look at her. She paused outside his room, then strode off down the hall, hoping TJ was gone from medical by the time she got there.

Her normal routine was brought to a halt two days later as two cadets walked in - well, one walked in, the other limped, leaning heavily on her friend. "What happened?" she asked, and checked the clock on the wall. It was lunch time, and late in the hour. Most of the cadets who'd come in from Adam's class had gone to lunch already. There were still a few who insisted on overdoing everything they did, even though they were told not to. Still, the number had gone down.

"I was trying a move," the walking girl said, blushing, "and Portia got in the way." She helped her tall, brunette friend to sit down where Cassie pointed her, and sank down on the floor out of the way. "It's not bad, is it?" she asked as Cassie checked the leg.

"No, just a... wait." She shook her head, grabbed a scanner, and ran it over the injured area. "No, just a bruise. I suggest you stay out of her way."

"Oh, I will," Portia grinned, glancing at her blonde companion. "I will."

"It's going to hurt for today, and I bet it's really sore tomorrow. I can give you an excuse from classes for one day, if you'd like."

The girl considered, then shook her head. "No, but thanks. I figure we won't have much time to recover in some assignments, might as well get used to it."

Cassie nodded and watched as the two girls opened the door to leave the room. A familiar figure in black walked in and collided with Portia, knocking her down, and the blonde girl went down with her. She stared up at Carlos with the oddest expression on her face; he reached down and pulled them both to their feet. "Excuse me," he said softly, and moved purposefully toward Cassie. The blonde girl watched him go until Portia nudged her, then they left and Cassie turned her attention to the man before her. He was furious. "I'm here," he growled.

Cassie had him sit down, and began her examination. She did not look up when Ashley walked in with Teena, discussing something or other, she didn't hear. She did notice Carlos' reaction. He tensed up fast and looked down, as if attempting to hide his face from Ashley. Cassie looked up and caught Ashley's expression. Oh, this was bad, she was about to lay into him, Cassie could see it in her eyes. Before she could say anything, Teena had a grip on Ashley's arm and was leading her back in the direction they'd come.

"I knew I shouldn't have come," Carlos snarled at Cassie, and started to get up.

"Oh, no, you don't." She firmly pushed him back down, ignoring for now the expression on his face. "You stay right here."

"You have fifteen minutes from the time I walked in here," he told her in an even voice. "No more."

"That's plenty," she said softly, looking at his face. She wasn't sure, but was that pain that flitted through his eyes? It was gone an instant later, replaced by anger. She stepped back after a couple of minutes. "You'll be fine. Now, go get Andros, and make sure he comes back here."

He got off the table and strode out the door without a word. Cassie sighed and went back to the rooms they'd set aside for Andros and Ashley.

Ashley was pacing furiously, ignoring Teena. Of course. Teena had never known Carlos, really, only through the stories and some of the vids they'd had. And then she had only ever noticed TJ. Cassie bit her tongue on a curse and grabbed her friend's arm. "Stop it. Now."

Ashley looked at her, anguish in her eyes. She and Carlos had been friends before they'd been Power Rangers, and this had to hurt. "What happened to him?" she demanded.

"Calm down. You calm down and I'll tell you."

"Cassie..." Teena started, and Cassie held up her hand, not really sure if it were to stop the other woman's words or to strike her. Ashley had every right to know. Cassie watched as Ashley calmed herself, then she moved to a chair and sat down, her hands trembling. This was going to be bad.

"Okay." Her voice was surprisingly calm.

"TJ cornered him in room 23, and they beat the tar out of each other two days ago," Cassie said. "That's where the bruises and cuts came from. As for the rest of it, I can't tell you."

Ashley looked at her in confusion. "That explains why I heard TJ's voice the other day at the wrong time, but... was I asleep when Carlos came in?"

"No, he didn't come in. I had to track him down. You know how stubborn he is." Cassie let out a mirthless laugh. "I can out-stubborn even Andros if I have to."

"You usually did, too," Andros said from the doorway, and walked over to sit down by Ashley. He no sooner just touched her than she burst into the tears that had been waiting to happen. He held her gently, and just let her cry. Cassie and Teena quickly left the room.

Andros hadn't come out by the time dinner came around, and Cassie sighed and leaned against the wall as the last patient left the office. This was ridiculous! Sometimes, she wished Carlos had never come back at all.

"Teena?" Her heart quickened, even if the name TJ called wasn't hers, and she sighed again. The perfect ending to a perfect day. She didn't know if she could fit any more sarcasm in the thought.

"TJ, how did you get past Carlos?" Cassie asked, accidentally breaking up a kiss as she walked into the room.

"I tried to talk to him, but he ignored me." TJ shook his head and hugged Teena tighter. "We're back to that, I guess."

Cassie sighed. "Good night, Teena. Sleep well, you two." She shoved down the jealousy that still reared its ugly head and had made it impossible to work with Teena for nearly a year. As it was, she'd left for a year to get some real training in the medical field, and had been surprised to learn that being a Power Ranger meant there were classes she hadn't had to take. Justin had taken it upon himself to get certified in alien medicine, so that had taken some pressure off of her. She was getting used to working with Teena now, and even to the feelings of jealousy she felt every once in a while, but her own stupidity made her angry sometimes. No, scratch that. Usually. Always. Okay, so maybe it was time to get her own certification in alien biology.

"You, too," Teena wished, and they walked out of the office. Cassie sighed and sank down on the chair nearest her.

"Yeah, right," she mumbled. "Sleep well, with your regrets." She leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes.

"Excuse me," she heard, and someone was shaking her shoulder slightly. "I'm sorry to wake you." Cassie opened her eyes to look up at the blonde that had been in earlier that day with her friend. "Hi." She looked startled, and Cassie could only guess that Carlos was standing guard outside Medical, and that he still had that frosty look on his face from earlier that day. "Um. Portia doesn't think she'll be able to sleep tonight; do you have something, a painkiller or something she can take?"

Cassie blinked and nodded. "Yeah, I think so." She pushed herself up. "Do you know her last name?"

"Shaw," she said distractedly, then glanced nervously at the door. "Is he okay? He looks like he could spit nails."

Cassie chuckled. "He'd probably try, just to be contrary," she said. "I don't know if he's okay. I don't know him." Anymore, she added silently.

"But you used to, didn't you?" the girl asked in some confusion, and Cassie turned to look at her in surprise. "I-I mean, that is him in the entry, isn't it? You were on the same team, right?" Was that panic on her face?

"Yes, it is. And yes, I did know him once. That was a long time ago."

"How long?" She almost didn't hear it.

"A little over four years, now," Cassie answered, then shook her head. "Let me get that aspirin. Just a minute."

In the supply closet, she leaned against the wall and fought the tears she could feel crowding her eyes. She could wait for a while, just get rid of this child and then she'd have a good cry. She deserved one. She got the packet of aspirin and returned; the girl took it and left, hesitating just a moment before opening the door. Faced with Carlos in that mood, Cassie didn't blame her. She waited until she was sure the girl was gone, sank down in the chair she'd just vacated, and sobbed her eyes out.

When she woke up the next morning, she felt a little better. Not great, but better. She struggled out of bed, surprised to find herself tangled in the sheets. She hadn't done that for a long time. She didn't remember any nightmares, but that's the condition she was usually in when she had them. And she hadn't had them in a while.

After she was feeling a little more human - which meant after a shower and breakfast - she contacted Bulk. "Did you put those messages out yet?"

"The ones for Carlos? Yeah."

"Did he pick them up?"

"Let me check." She heard typing over the link. "Yeah, he downloaded them."

"Great. Thanks." She broke the contact and sat down. Did she really want to get into it with Carlos again today? The answer was no, and on top of that, she didn't want to face TJ or Teena at all. Great. She couldn't really just take off with Ashley in the condition she was, so with a sigh, she went in to work.

It was worse than she'd thought. Ashley was a complete wreck. "You tried to talk to him, didn't you?"

"Yes." Ashley sat slumped on one of the empty beds.

"I wish you wouldn't. What did he say?"

"Nothing. I tried to talk to him three times."

Cassie sighed, then eyed her friend. "You need a change of scenery."

Ashley perked up. "Yes, I do."

"So do I. Let me get a chair, you get a sweater, and we'll hit the simudeck." She laughed, almost bitterly. "It's the closest thing we have to a park up here, and we're guaranteed not to get attacked."

Ashley laughed. "That's for sure." She hopped off the bed and vanished into her room. Cassie snagged a wheelchair and a handful of Ashley's nutrient patches, then called Zhane.

"Just to let you know, so that Andros doesn't go through the roof. Ashley and I want to get out and go to the simudeck."

"Oh?" Silence on the other end. "Can I come?"

"That would be fine," Cassie grinned. "Can't think of anyone I'd rather have with us." She was extremely glad he hadn't suggested TJ go with them.

"Good, because Andros would have my head if I let you go without anyone, even there. I'll meet you up there in five minutes, okay?"

"See you then." She turned around to smile at Teena, who looked at her in curiosity. "I'm taking Ashley out for a while. We're going stir crazy. Zhane is going with us. I don't know how long we'll be or when we'll be back. And DON'T tell Andros that we've gone. He'll probably want my head."

Teena shook her head. "I won't, I promise."

Ashley came out then, wrapped in a sweater and with a blanket. "Just in case someone gets upset," she said, settling into the chair. Cassie helped tuck the blanket around her, and walked her towards the door.

Zhane met them halfway down the walk, smiling. He was dressed nicely in "civilian" clothes, and Cassie scowled. "Now I want to go change," she muttered.

"Fine. We'll meet you at the simudeck," Zhane said, and took over pushing Ashley's chair. Cassie ran back to the clinic, changed, and ran down to the simudeck, rather distressed at how out of breath she was. Good thing they were inactive, she thought. She'd never respond well to a threat.

"Don't say anything," she gasped out to Zhane, who looked at her with amusement. He'd obviously noticed how out of breath she was.

"Wow, Cass, do you ever get down to the gym?" Ashley asked.

"I said, don't say anything," Cassie growled, but couldn't keep the scowl on her face as they stepped into the sunshine of the program Zhane had activated. "Ah, that feels nice," she said softly. "Really nice." She took the chair from Zhane and they stepped into the program. Cassie paused only once to put a password on it; she wanted to keep everyone out that she could. Especially two of her teammates.


	6. She's Not the Girl I Used to Know

6: "She's Not the Girl I Used to Know" - Spandau Ballet, Highly Strung

Sylvie had enough. She couldn't really ask any questions about Carlos because then she'd have to say who she was. She knew they wouldn't let anyone in who wasn't qualified, but others didn't know it and probably wouldn't believe it, specifically her ex-boyfriend Geoff. She sat down at the terminal in her room, plugged in her datapad, and set about trying to find out what was going on.

Lunch went by too fast. She hadn't even started when Amy came in, wordlessly grabbed her datapad, and left again with a glare in Sylvie's direction. Right behind her came Portia and Leia, to drag her off to Science. In class, it was such a temptation to work on breaking that code, but she knew if she tried, Cestro would either catch her doing it, or he would catch her later, in the form of a test. She bent her mind to the subject at hand.

Once philosophy was over, she made excuses to her roommates and Mack and David for missing their regular practices, and ran up to her room to work on her project. She knew the Academy had a pretty good security system, and tried to hide her tracks. So far, it seemed to be working.

It took her three days before she found what she wanted: the medical reports entered by Cassie Chan on Carlos. She downloaded it onto her datapad and crawled up on her bunk, grabbing Delilah and putting her on her lap. "Now, let's find out what happened," she said softly and began to read.

The car accident had been someone else's fault; the truck driver hadn't seen the red light or hadn't cared. Brianna had been driving, Harmony in the back seat, taking Carlos to the Academy, to work. Both Brianna and Harmony had been killed on impact. Sylvie felt the tears gather in her eyes, and brushed them away angrily. She knew all that, had been to the funeral that Carlos hadn't attended, hadn't been able to. She hugged Delilah closer and read on.

"The hospital staff was inexperienced or careless, the doctor couldn't tell me which. They didn't check the necklace or the bracelet we now wear in case of such an emergency, and of course stripped him to care for his wounds. That sent him into further shock. Carlos went from bad to worse in a matter of seconds, apparently dropping into a coma faster than they had ever seen. Doctor Jamieson called the Academy in a panic when he found the bracelet identifying the problem. I went down with a blanket and wrapped him up in it; once surrounded with black again, he stabilized. It was kind of amazing to see the difference. But Angel Grove Memorial isn't equipped to deal with the quirks of being a Power Ranger, so as soon as he's stable enough, we're taking him up the Academy."

Sylvie wiped the tears from her cheeks. That made sense; he'd worn black the whole time she'd known him. He still did. "But why did he leave?" She opened the next file, hoping to find something out.

"Carlos is doing better; we moved him up here yesterday, and he's starting to improve. He looks at me with this haunted expression, and I don't know how to help him. I know it's got to be hard for him, although up here I'm sure it's a little easier than at home. Brianna rarely came up here, and Harmony had never been. We haven't told him that Ashley lost the baby yet; he's taken about as much loss as he can handle, and I'm not sure how he'd react to that. I'm still not exactly sure how to tell him, frankly, but I'm going to have to. He won't say much, it tires him, but it shouldn't be long before he's much better. The double shock to his system may have been more than the power could heal all that quickly. He hasn't complained, and that's a bad sign. He's almost a worse patient than TJ."

"That still didn't tell me what I wanted to know," she mumbled, and opened the next file.

"He's walking around, still not saying anything. He seems to be thinking about something, and that is not a good sign. It means, oddly enough, that he's going to do something rash. I'm keeping him here anyway, I'm worried about him. I've never had someone go through Color Withdrawal while as injured as he was, and I'm hoping there are no bad side effects. Well, other than the relative slowness of his recovery. I'm not a real doctor yet, I still have some studying to do for that, if only I had the time. Dr. Jamieson came up to see him, and was surprised he was up and around; he expressed an interest in sending people up here to study us, to prevent what happened to Carlos from happening again. I think he's one of the people he was talking about. He must be a researcher at heart."

Sylvie leaned back, staring thoughtfully at the bunks on the other side of the room without really seeing them. She wondered how injured Andros and Carlos had actually been, fighting the monster in the Secret City, unable to morph. They had survived, certainly, but it couldn't have been comfortable. That explained how they'd even managed to get up after a couple of blows. She turned her attention to the next file.

"I sent Carlos home last night. I don't know what else to do. He seems to be getting better, sort of. But it's like he's missing something - okay, its cliché, but it's true. I guess he just needs time to get over this whole loss thing. He doesn't take it very well. As far as I know, he doesn't know about Ashley's loss, either. He took his communicator and his morpher, so we can track him if we have to."

There was an addendum to this file, dated two weeks later. "Carlos vanished last night. He left a note for Ashley and Andros, apologizing for leaving like that, saying something about memories, and having to clear his head. He's not well yet, but his house is empty and sold. Andros found the morpher and communicator on his desk. He didn't want to leave us short a team member."

There were no more entries. Sylvie stared at the last one, closed everything and saved it to a disk she'd bought at the Academy bookstore for just such an occasion, then deleted everything off the datapad that had anything to do with Carlos. What could have possessed him to take off like that? She didn't come up with an answer, staring at the bunks, so she left, to go down to the practice mats and began to try to figure out the move Mr. Scott had performed a while ago. Anything to get her mind off her friend. On her way out the door, she noticed Amy had come in and was doing something with her datapad hooked to the terminal against the back wall. Sylvie said good-bye, but she didn't answer.

Sylvie ended like usual, on her back staring up at the ceiling and wondering what she was doing wrong. "It's really hard to learn that on your own," Mr. Scott's voice said, and Sylvie scrambled to her feet, flushing in embarrassment; he smiled at her. With him stood Mr. Park, who watched the exchange with a straight face. She wondered if he ever smiled.

"Yeah, I've been finding that out," she said sheepishly. He stepped onto the mat.

"Let me show you where to start, okay?" he asked. She nodded.

Sylvie returned to her room, aching. The man didn't pull his punches! Or at least, she hoped he wasn't, because if he was, she never wanted to face him on real terms! She now had a private instructor before dinner, at least until she got the move as perfect as she could, until he said she was finished. That had been the deal.

The two occupants of the room turned to look at her as she stepped in the door and sank onto one of the chairs. "What?" she asked after it became apparent they were staring at her.

"You've got a black eye," Portia said. "What happened?"

Sylvie reached up and touched the bruise around her left eye. "I didn't dodge fast enough," she grimaced. "I'm actually getting instruction on that move I nearly broke your leg with."

"Good," Leia said, and smiled. "Who from?"

"Mr. Scott, no less. I guess Mr. Park saw me trying it a few days ago, and got hold of him. They've been waiting for me to show up again." She shrugged, wincing at the pain in her shoulders. "I can tell tomorrow is going to be fun."

"Take a long hot shower and go to bed. I'll bring something up from the Commissary," Portia told her.

"Where's Amy?" Sylvie asked, just as the door opened and their roommate came in, looking upset. "Are you okay?" Sylvie asked. Amy sank down on her bunk.

"Oh, sure, I'm fine," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "I was just told that if I don't start working with other people, I won't be able to stay." She glared at the other three around her, then opened her locker and pulled out her datapad.

Sylvie watched her, stunned. Teamwork was important; she'd seen how the Rangers had all supported each other. Carlos had told her the risks the others had taken to get him, Andros, and the other people out of the Secret City, allowing themselves to be captured even though they knew they could be turned into data cards, too. Never mind that they couldn't morph. "That doesn't surprise me," Sylvie murmured.

"What, that they'll kick me out?" Amy snapped, looked over at her in fury.

"No! No, that you have to be part of a team, and there's no point in training someone if they won't. Have you ever watched any of the vids of the stuff they've had to do? I mean, in the Teamwork class they just showed us what happened when Mr. Scott and one of his teammates didn't work together at first. Two different vids, one when they were under a spell and one when they weren't. It's just impossible to win if someone isn't part of the team and you need them."

"There are solitary Rangers out there," Amy protested.

"Remains of teams," Leia said. "Even the head master had to take on the rest of his team when the opportunity presented itself. And as far as we know, the Phantom hasn't had the opportunity."

"The Triforian Ranger, though," Amy said, sounding a little more desperate.

"Exception," Portia said evenly. "Or we can ask someone about him." She laughed suddenly. "Unless he is his own team."

Leia laughed, too. "Well, since he's a tri-fold being, I guess that's possible," she grinned.

Sylvie shook her head. "That's just it. The solitary Rangers are the exceptions, not the rule. And even they can work with teams, and do, fairly well, from what the syllabus said. So you still have to be able to work with a team, even if you don't right then." She shook her head. "I'm not sure that made sense."

"I didn't need the lecture from you guys, too," Amy said, and turned her back on them. They all heard her start up her datapad. Sylvie looked at her friends and shrugged.

"Look, we're sorry," Leia said softly. "We didn't mean to lecture you."

"We really didn't," Portia added. "And I hope you don't get sent home, and not just because you're helping me out with the computer."

Amy didn't answer, and didn't even turn to acknowledge that they'd spoken.

"Well, I'm going to take a shower, then try to sleep. And if I wake up early, I'll try not to wake you guys up, okay?" She gave them a wink and grabbed a towel on the way towards the bathroom.

The next day was spent explaining her black eye and stiffness to everyone but the teachers of the Combat Class and the Teamwork class. The inseparable Mack and David were merciless from the beginning; as soon as she gave her first excuse, she could hear them talking to whoever she'd just explained it to, and the comments always made her blush. David could be particularly pointed, but it never hurt her; half the time he took the blame. Of course, when he did, she came back with something like "As if you could hit hard enough to bruise like this!" She could have sworn Mr. Scott was laughing at her as she explained for the millionth time that she'd been sparing and hadn't ducked in time.

"You could see Dr. Chan for that," he said to her when they met after her classes were over.

She held up a small bottle. "Ibuprofen does a GREAT job of keeping the pain just out of reach," she said, tucked it away, and took a deep breath. "Okay. I'm ready."


	7. A Tall and Dark Figure

7: "A Tall and Dark Figure is Aiming to Change All My Plans" - Pseudo Echo, Walk Away

Bulk came in so fast after Andros left that Zhane knew he'd been hovering outside the door. The communications specialist looked worried. "We have a problem," he announced softly. "We have a hacker."

Zhane straightened. "It sounds dangerous. What is it?"

Bulk stared at him, then laughed. "Oh, I forget sometimes..." He shook his head and launched into a description of what a hacker was.

Zhane was amazed. "So, someone got into the computer system and accessed our information?" he asked.

"Yeah. The most disturbing part is, it was someone inside the Academy. This didn't come from outside. I haven't been able to find out where it came from, but I do know where they've been. All they downloaded was information on Carlos, after his accident that killed Brianna and Harmony."

Zhane leaned back. "Just about Carlos? Why?"

Bulk laughed at him. "That's the question, isn't it." He sobered. "I'll give you some more information as I get it. And I'm going to tell Cassie. It was her medical logs they downloaded."

"No, let me. I need to talk to her anyway."

Bulk nodded. "I've got Jacob, my best computer geek, tracing the hacker. What do you want me to do when I find them?"

Zhane paused, considering. "I don't know. Let me know who it is, and I'll figure out how to handle it."

"Okay, it's all yours." Bulk stood and turned to go. "How is Cassie?"

"I'm going to find out now," Zhane said with a wry smile.

He walked up medical, trying to figure out why someone would want to know the details of Carlos' accident, and what had happened afterwards. It was weird.

"Zhane," Teena greeted him cheerfully as he stepped into the office. "How can I help you?"

"Actually, I need to talk to Cassie," he said apologetically. She smiled and vanished into the back. He leaned against the wall, staring down at the floor, wondering what he was going to do to the hacker if they caught him or her.

"I don't think I've ever seen you so serious," Cassie teased lightly as she entered the room, and Zhane grinned at her.

"Hey. Got a few minutes? I've got some information you may not like much."

She sobered. "Does it have to do with Carlos or Ashley?"

"Carlos," he said hesitantly, wincing at the scowl that covered her face, "and we will want privacy."

"This way, sir," she said with a sigh and a gallant gesture, and he followed her to an examination room with two chairs. "So, what is it?" she asked as she sat down.

"First, I need to know what the whole thing was about opening Carlos' door on a Medical override," he said, remembering that was why he'd come up there in the first place. "Andros wanted to know what that was about." He sank down in the other chair.

"Oh." She looked angry. "Carlos and TJ got into a fight, and TJ came into medical. Carlos didn't. They did some pretty good damage to each other." She scowled. "I went to find him and see if I could hear his side of the story. He didn't tell me anything. Which is pretty normal for him right now."

Zhane nodded, then took a deep breath. "Second, Bulk just talked to me. Someone hacked into your medical files."

"They what?" she demanded, leaning forward. "What did they get into?"

"That's the weird thing. They were old files. The ones on Carlos, after the accident. That's all they touched, so far as Jacob could tell. He's still working on it, though. They downloaded all of those."

Cassie stood up to pace. "Why would they be interested in that?" she asked. "Who would be interested in that?"

"That's the thing. I don't know." He paused, making a decision, then sighed. "At least, we have a limit on who it is," he said after a minute.

"Why?"

"Because it was someone inside the Academy."

She sank down in her chair again. "Someone inside the Academy. That's either a Cadet or staff."

"Exactly."

"Are you going to tell Andros?"

Zhane took a deep breath. "I don't think so. Not yet, anyway. Ultimately, he's the one that will decide what happens to this hacker, but I want at least a suspect before it gets that far."

"Are you going to tell Carlos?"

Her question took him by surprise. "I hadn't thought about that. Do you think he'll want to know?"

She scowled again, and Zhane decided that he just wasn't going to mention Carlos to Cassie again if it were at all possible. "I don't know Carlos anymore," she admitted. "I don't know if he even read the messages he downloaded from after he left."

Zhane looked at her, noticing for the first time how tired she looked. There were dark circles under her eyes, and they had lost the sparkle he'd come to count on. "When was the last time you actually got out of this place for more than a night's sleep?"

"Don't you start on me," she said evenly.

He laughed. "Okay, okay, but think about it. You seem more stressed than usual."

"It's your biology I'm stressing about," she told him. "You Kerovans had to go and change things, and I haven't even started talking to them about adopting."

Zhane stared at her, trying to make sense of what she'd just said. "No, I think I don't want to know," he said after a minute, and stood. "I'm sure I could get Teena to kick you out for a day or two."

"Don't, please," she said, softer this time. "I'll take a week or two off after the baby is born, but not before."

"Promise?" he asked. She nodded.

"I promise." She stood, and he gave her a hug that she returned almost desperately.

"Okay. I'm going to talk to Carlos. Try again, I guess," Zhane said with a wry grin.

"Are you going to tell him about this?"

He nodded. "Yeah, might as well. Please, don't say anything about it to Ashley, because I know it will get back to Andros, and I don't want to put any more stress on his head than there already is."

"Done." She opened the door and led the way out. Zhane followed her, hoping that she survived the next few months. "Have Karone call me, okay?" she asked when he reached the door.

"Of course." He left Medical and headed down to where he knew Carlos was, and this is where it got tricky; he was at Andros' door.

An odd sound brought him up short, and he tried to identify it. Shots, his brain told him a minute later. Someone was firing inside the Academy. It was way too early in the semester for that, and usually the weapons were locked up. He started to move towards the sound, softly and stealthily. He looked down over one of the open walkways to the floor to find three of his security force holding off five opponents, who were holding what could only be stolen blasters from the Academy's own store of weapons. He touched his communicator. "Simon."

There was nothing. He stared at it for a minute, ducking as a shot nearly parted his hair, then he spun and raced back to Medical. He had to get Ashley to safety; at least that would keep Andros a little sane. He didn't pass anyone on his way, which wasn't too odd; it was lunch time, probably the perfect time to stage an attack. He thought about going to get the current active team, until he remembered they were on a short mission to the UN, reporting on the activities of the teams around the universe. And if communications were down inside, there was no way to get anything outside. His next thought was Chameleon, until he remembered that the machine was on his home planet, doing his own reporting. That was a relief.

He burst into Medical, surprising Teena and the patient she was seeing. "Where's Cassie?" he demanded.

"Here." She came in from the back, and he watched her go into alert mode. It was one of the most interesting sights he'd ever seen. His next thought was wishing he could see Karone do the same thing. "What's wrong."

"I want you to get Ashley out of here, and somewhere they'd never expect her to be," he said. "There's a firefight in the entry way. Hurry, and I'll try to get word to Andros. Don't tell me where you are going. Communications are down." He stopped, his mind trying to cope. Karone! How was he going to tell Karone to keep out of the way of these people? He didn't even know exactly where she was!

"What kind of password do you want to say when it's clear?" she asked. From the corner of his eye, he noticed Teena and the cadet staring at them in shock.

Her question snapped him out of his worry. "I was just thinking that." He suddenly smirked, leaned forward and whispered to her, "Divatox. You okay with that?"

Cassie laughed flatly. "It's fitting. Go, I'll get her out of here." She spun and was gone.

Zhane turned to the others. "I suggest you two find a place to hide and wait it out. And if you find any other civilians, take them with you. I don't know how lethal these guys are going to get." He turned and left Medical, racing back down to the entry way.

It was empty, the holograms off, obvious signs of a fight in the walls. Uttering a curse that would have made his wife proud or blush, depending on her mood, he spun and raced for Andros' office.

Carlos was gone, and the office was empty. He knew Andros wouldn't have gone to the Commissary just yet, it was too full of Cadets. So, where would he be? Could Carlos have gotten him out in time? He stepped outside the door, and almost into a young man carrying a gun. With a quick leg sweep, he knocked it out of his hand, only to have something slam into the back of his head, and he knew no more.


	8. Right Now They've Got Nothing to Lose

8: "I Tell You Right Now They've Got Nothing to Lose" - Queensrÿche, Empire

Andros looked up in surprise as the door to his office burst open. "You haven't closed up any of the exits since I left, have you?" Carlos demanded. Andros stared at him, trying to figure out what he was asking for.

"What?"

"Well?" He looked impatient.

"Why."

"Because there's a fight in the entry way, and I have to get you out of here." Carlos moved towards Andros, and he stood, still trying to figure out what Carlos was talking about.

"A what?"

Carlos shook his head. "You've been invaded. They're armed with your blasters." He grabbed Andros' arm and pulled him bodily around the desk. "I have to get you out of here."

It finally clicked, and Andros stopped just as they reached the door. "Ashley."

Carlos growled. "Ashley has Zhane's whole team guarding her, including TJ. Plus, she's with Cassie. You have me."

"I can take care of myself," Andros protested, and the look Carlos gave him shook him more than he would have thought.

"You couldn't even stand up to Ecliptor, and he was only one." The words beat into him, and he shook his head. "There are more than one out there," Carlos continued, ignoring him. "I don't know who they want, but I'm betting getting you out of danger will be the best thing right now. Move." He punctuated it with a firm tug, and Andros stumbled forward.

Once outside the door, Carlos pulled him left, towards one of the emergency exits. Andros stopped, nearly pulling Carlos off his feet. "Let me think. Just give me a minute." He was utterly disgusted with himself; no one would have caught him off guard like this before!

"You're not going up to Medical. No reason to lead them up there and right to her." Carlos took a deep breath and seemed to be struggling with something. "Andros. I know this is hard. Let me get you safe, then we can worry about everyone else, okay? You can have your minute then."

Andros stared at him, then nodded. "Fine. I guess that's what we hired you for." The words left a bad taste in his mouth. He hadn't _wanted_ to hire Carlos; he wanted him at the Academy because he belonged there.

"You're just lucky I know you. Follow me." He turned away, and Andros, sighing, followed him.

The Emergency door wouldn't open, and Andros could hear Carlos muttering under his breath, although he couldn't tell what. It was still a little too unreal to him; had they really gotten that complacent without anyone to fight?

"How did we get... Oh. Won't work. Don't they know that it's dangerous to lock these?" he mumbled distractedly. Andros studied his friend again. He wasn't pacing, like he would have been eight years ago. He stood still, brow furrowed in concentration. "Okay, here they come. This way." He pulled Andros down a side corridor. "Run."

They ran, and Andros found they were working in tandem again, almost like Carlos had never left. Pausing at cross corridors to make sure they were still clear, they moved towards another way out. It was eerie to Andros, how empty it was. It wasn't like when he walked through at night before going to bed. The Academy felt dead, and he shuddered at the images that thought produced.

A blinking red light caught Andros' eye, and he cursed softly. Carlos looked at him, impressed. "I didn't know you'd been to Jaiquan," he said.

Andros pointed up at the camera. "We installed an extensive security system, with cameras in all public areas. If they're in Jerome's office, it won't matter where we are, they'll know."

Carlos growled softly, glancing around. "All right. Keep moving. They know where we are, that doesn't mean they know how to reach us. Communications are down, so no teleporting, and we want to stay away from Medical. What about the current team's quarters?"

"None of the quarters do, but all the hallways have cameras."

Carlos growled again. "Fine. Bill me if this gets too expensive, I'll pay it off somehow." He jumped up to the camera and pulled the wires from it. Andros nodded. He really wasn't thinking straight. "Okay. Let's go. They can follow us by the cameras, but if we're fast enough, we can knock out a good area that we'll be pretty safe in. Let's go."

"You watch for people, I'll watch for cameras," Andros suggested, and Carlos nodded.

"Agreed." They set off again, rounded a corner and walked into a group of four men Andros didn't recognize. Carlos shoved him back into the corridor they had just come from. "Run," he hissed. He did, running for the next intersection, mapping it out in his mind where he was going to go next. Blaster shots fired behind him, but nothing hit him, and he spared a glance backwards. Carlos was right behind him, eyes narrowed in fury and concentration. Andros skidded around the corner, moving towards a stairwell that would get them off this level, only to run right into a second group of men. Literally. He didn't wait for an attack; he knocked them out of his way, using every skill he had, and behind him, he could hear Carlos doing the same. Then he was through and running again. He slipped around a corner and into a small closet, turning to pull Carlos in with him, then closed the door.

They could hear people moving around out in the hall, and voices, but nothing distinct. Andros pressed his ear against the door, trying to find something out about who it was. Finally, though, the sounds outside died away, and he slid bonelessly to the floor. "Hear anything?" Carlos asked. He leaned against the wall, looking barely winded.

"No. The door is too thick, I think."

"What are the chances of getting to the Megaship and taking off?"

"Depends. Unless it's built into their plans. For all we know, we'd get up there and be trapped." Andros closed his eyes and wished, not for the first time, he was telepathic instead of telekinetic. Anything to know Ashley was okay. "We can try for it."

"Let me know when you're ready to move again." There was the barest hint of sympathy in Carlos' voice, and Andros looked up at him. He looked haunted, remembering something, and Andros was pretty sure it was Brianna and Harmony.

"Where did you go?"

The question seemed to startle Carlos, and he looked down at Andros, then slid down his wall to the floor. "Away. I touched down on KO-35, but it was only a stop over, and I didn't get off the ship. It sounded good, though. It was busy."

Andros was a little disconcerted at his own lack of reaction. KO-35 wasn't home anymore, and it surprised him, somewhat. "Where did you end up?"

"Lots of places. Found work..." He trailed off, his eyes suddenly hard, and he stood. "Come on. I have to get you out."

Andros got to his feet, and Carlos cautiously opened the door and peeked out. He moved further out into the corridor, and Andros followed, casting glances around. "Keep an eye out for cameras," Carlos said softly, and they started off again.

They took out four more cameras before running into the next scouting party. Andros didn't even know if Carlos knew about it; he'd used his telekinesis to do it while they were out of sight of the camera. They moved through this group the same way they had the others. Andros noticed they were moving towards the Astro Megaship. He wondered distantly what Carlos had in mind up there. They stopped again for a breather, and one of the scouting parties came around the corner. One man, who looked way too skittish, snapped his weapon up and fired.

Andros was suddenly falling, sliding sideways down the wall, then three more shots went off as he hit the floor. He sat up, staring at Carlos, who slowly crumpled to the ground, then Andros got to his feet and ran. Someone behind him yelled, but he heard no firing as he rounded the corner. How many times was that, now, three? four? that Carlos had taken a blow for him. He shook his head to keep it clear of the memories that wanted to intrude. Hopefully he'd be okay.

He avoided one scouting party by slipping into the closet they'd hidden in before, and waited patiently for the sounds outside to die away. They finally did, but only after a much longer time. When he ventured out again, he could hear them arguing over which way to go, which way he might have gone. A voice cut through the babble, and Andros guessed it was from a communication device of some sort.

"Did you find him?"

"We lost him again. His bodyguard is dead. The one in black." Andros winced. He did not want to have to explain to Ashley that his carelessness had finally gotten Carlos killed.

"Be careful. He's dangerous now, too, possibly more so. On the other hand, we found his battlizer in the desk, so you won't be facing a morphed Ranger. Send Stephen down. Mark said he shot at him." Andros cursed softly. He'd forgotten it.

"He surprised us," a second voice said defensively.

"Fine. But I want him alive, and if you're taking shots at him, I want you off the hunt."

Hunt, Andros thought. That's what it is, all right. And I'm the prey.

"I'll send him down."

"Good. Now find him." There was a click, as if it had been turned off.

"All right. We have to do something differently; this guy knows all the ins and outs of this place. We don't have Will's help in this sector, they took the cameras out. So keep your eyes open, and let's not leave anymore gaps. Most of you have seen him, if you haven't, he's got blonde streaks in his hair, and he's in red. Go."

Andros backed up, right into the barrel of one of the stolen blasters. He spun, but not fast enough to stop the blow; he did deflect it so it landed on his temple, leaving him stunned instead of unconscious, knocking him to his knees. His arms were twisted behind him, hands bound, then one of his captors pulled something that looked like a phone out of his belt. "We got him. We'll be down in a minute."

"Good work. Call everyone in, we can find the others later."

Others? Andros' stunned brain tried to focus, and he shook his head lightly to try to clear it. Others were free? He spent the whole walk trying to figure out who the 'others' might be, and praying to a god he thought he'd forgotten that one was Ashley.

He snapped out of his thoughts as they pushed him into his own office, and he saw Zhane, tied to a chair and slumped over. "Zhane?"

"He's okay." The unfamiliar voice came from behind the desk, where the chair had its back to him. "He just hasn't awakened yet. He got hit pretty hard."

"Who are you." He'd better not have injured any of the cadets, Andros thought, or he will pay.

The chair turned, revealing a man not much more than twenty, with lank blonde hair and hard eyes. He looked vaguely familiar, but Andros didn't recognize him. "You don't know me," he said.

"Should I?"

"Yes, you should." The man stood and walked around the desk to face him. "Oh, it's been a few years, but you should remember. You had a couple of bad weeks, and I think I got the brunt of it."

Andros tried to match him up with anyone he knew, but couldn't. He shook his head. "No. I don't know you."

"Think back four years." The voice was icier than before. "Your black Ranger had just disappeared - wasn't that who they killed?" Andros didn't answer. He didn't trust his voice. "And just after that," the man continued, walking to where Zhane was, "your lovely wife lost your first child." He turned suddenly on Andros. "Where is she?"

He tried not to let the relief show, tried to keep him from knowing that he had no idea where she was. From the look on his captor's face, he'd been unsuccessful. "You don't know. Well... someone does, and we'll get it out of them." The man walked around the desk and sat down again. "Anyway, back to your memories. You had me dismissed."

He remembered, with an intensity that made him wince. "Vincent Corry."

"You stole my dream from me." The look promised instant death, but creatures with far more power than this man had given him the same look. A human just could not give off the malice that, say, Ecliptor did. Although Astronema had come awfully close.

"How many people's dreams did you shatter?" Andros asked softly. The whole situation had been horrible.

"They weren't important." He waved them away. "I was going to be a Ranger, and you took it away from me."

"You wouldn't have..."

"Quiet!" Andros took a step back from the rage and hate in the man's eyes. "I have plans for you, and your wife." He paused. "And your child. Mostly your wife."

Andros started forward in fury, wrenching free of the hands that held him. "Keep your hands off her," he growled.

"Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to do anything like that. At least, that's not the plan." Vincent smirked as someone knocked Andros' feet out from under him. He fell, hitting his head on the edge of the table, and everything went blurry again. "Be careful! I want him able to watch me destroy his dream."

Hands lifted him up and set him in a chair next to Zhane, who had just started to wake up, moaning slightly. Andros felt blood trickle down his face and decided to play it up; was it possible that they didn't know everything about him? Hoping, he sat there, slumped in the chair, focusing on collecting his thoughts and calming himself down enough to do some good. If nothing else, he could get Zhane free, maybe; he could see the ropes that bound his friend to the chair. He closed his eyes to concentrate better.


	9. It's Time to Save Your World

9: "Wake Up, Sleepy One; It's Time to Save Your World" - Metallica, Where the Wild Things Are

Sylvie huddled in the small room she'd ducked into, scared to death. She was supposed to be safe here, things like this didn't happen to the Power Rangers. She'd been on the way to lunch - late again - when people, armed people, had stepped into the hallway. She'd done the first thing that came to mind; she'd run. Fast and far until she'd found a room that was open. Since she was still here, she must have lost them. Taking a deep breath, she struggled to calm herself down. Then she heard the shots. Her eyes widened in disbelief, and distantly she noted how much they sounded like the guns in Star Wars. Who were they shooting?

It occurred to her after a minute that someone could be hurt, and she was the only one she knew to help them. She had to force her legs to move, but finally she crawled towards the door and cracked it open. The voices she heard outside were indistinct, but she caught sight of red-clad legs among the grey ones, and figured it was Andros. She'd never seen him without Carlos, but there was no black in sight.

The figures left, but she waited a while to be sure, not wanting to be like the stupid people in the adventure movies who left cover too soon and were captured. Finally she ventured out, and slipped down the hall the direction they'd come from. She came to a corner and paused, peeking around it, feeling like an idiot for acting like Bruce Willis in "Die Hard", her mother's favorite movie. But down the hall lay a crumpled figure in black that took her breath away. She raced down to him, carefully pushing him onto his back, wincing at the burns in his clothes and the wounds they revealed.

"Carlos?" she asked softly, but he didn't respond. She felt for a pulse at his neck and found it, weak but steady. She glanced around, trying to find a place to hide that was big enough for him. She didn't think she could get him back to the small room she'd found. Afraid they'd come back and find her, or worse, find him, she began to look around in earnest. Around the corner was a door that opened, and the room was big enough for him, if she moved some stuff. She did that, pushing boxes and cleaning supplies out of the way, then gently pulled him in. He was heavier than she'd thought, but she managed, closing the door and sinking down in relief.

The question was, what to do next. She didn't know this area that well yet, and there were people out there who apparently wouldn't hesitate to shoot. "Man," she mumbled, "I wish I had my datapad." Then she remembered she did, or rather, what she'd done with it. Checking once more on the unconscious man beside her, she slipped back out and down the hall to the room she'd taken shelter in before. Yes, there it was, right where she'd left it. She hugged it close, half-wishing it were Delilah, and raced back to where she'd left Carlos. He hadn't moved. She knew from reading the files on him that the healing was increased, but by how much, she didn't know. Resolved, she settled into the cramped quarters to wait, using the time to get a little more familiar with the layout and to figure out exactly where she was.

"Carlos," she said once that was fixed in her mind, but didn't know what to say next. She'd never really thought about being able to confront him about how she'd felt, and it felt kind of weird. She tried not to think about it, but the words continued to come out, and in some part of her brain, she was glad he couldn't hear her. "I know you were upset, but I wish you'd at least said good-bye. First Dad left, then Troy, at least Troy had said good-bye, and then you came in to the picture. Okay, so I had to drag you kicking and screaming into it, and I'm REALLY sorry I blackmailed you. I really am, but if I hadn't, I would never have met you, I would never have met Andros or the others." She sighed and shifted a little. "Of course, then you met Brianna, and she had Harmony, but you were still there, you took time for me, even if it was only a phone call every Saturday morning, and the occasional breakfast. I loved it!

"But then you had to go and disappear. I couldn't even ask if they were lying! I thought you'd left because of me! Do you even know that I called every week for a very long time? Every week, just to hear the poor man on the other end say 'I'm sorry, we don't know where he is or when he'll be back. Perhaps you can leave a message?' You didn't even tell your friends where you'd gone! That was really harsh, Carlos. Really harsh."

She paused to take a breath, a little amazed at the anger that had come out. Something tickled her cheek and she wiped at it, expecting a bug and getting water. Oh, great. She was crying. What had Geoff told her? "Stop crying and get over it," he'd said. She brushed the tears from her face, squeezed the last tears from her eyes, and sat in silence until that feeling of crying was gone.

"Well, that was..." she started. He moaned, interrupting her. "Carlos?"

"Bri..." he mumbled, then another name she couldn't understand. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open. "Andros," he said, and started to get up. Sylvie scrambled to push him back down.

"I don't care how fast the power heals you, there hasn't been enough time," she said, leaning on his shoulders when just pushing wasn't enough.

"Where is he." She flinched at his tone, but didn't let him go.

"I saw him go off with a bunch of people in grey."

"Who are you?" He seemed to see her for the first time. "Oh. A cadet... how did you get here?"

She half smiled and leaned back, fairly sure he wasn't going to get up now. "I was holed up in a room a couple corridors over. I saw them take the headmaster, then tried to get back to my room. I almost stumbled over you. Are you okay? And who are you?" That question had popped into her head as a way not to let him know she knew who he was.

"Carlos Valerte, personal bodyguard of the headmaster, and I have to make sure he's okay."

"He was walking," she said softly. It hadn't even crossed her mind that he might be hurt.

"Are they still around here?"

She shook her head. "I don't think so. At least, I didn't see anyone when I went out."

He sat up so fast that she didn't have time to pin him down again. "You went out?" He looked angry, then swayed as if he'd gotten dizzy.

"I had to get something," she said, then had to hide a smirk as he winced. "I told you not to move. That couldn't have felt good."

"What do you mean, the body's gone!" a voice from right outside the door shouted, and both of them froze.

"He's gone." This one was clearer, and Sylvie glanced at Carlos, who was staring at the door, ready to move. Of course, he couldn't, but that was beside the point. He looked deadly, and she had to admire that. Would she ever be like that?

"I thought you said he was dead!" One of Carlos' eyebrows went up, and he looked at her with a small smile on his face. "He couldn't have just walked away!"

"I didn't, Mike did. I didn't see the body. I still haven't seen the body. He's gone."

"All right. Who else do you have to find?"

"You asked me to find Karone and Cassie Chan. I'm on my way to Medical."

"Good. They did a count in the Commissary..." the voice faded. Sylvie realized she was holding her breath, and let it out. She didn't think she had ever been so terrified in her life. Here she was, stuck in a situation again, and this time, the Power Ranger with her was injured. Badly enough that when he tried to get to his feet, he fell again.

"Stop that," she hissed, and grabbed his arm. "Stay down or I'll sit on you."

"You're terrified, and you want to sit on me," he said, a little humor in his eyes.

"I didn't say I wanted to, I said I would. Have you always been this impossible?"

"No."

"Liar." It slipped out before she could stop it, and she colored. "I've seen the vids," she said in response to his look, hoping he'd accept that excuse. She wouldn't tell him that she'd heard stories from the other Rangers, too. Then she took a deep breath. "So, Karone and Cassie Chan are still free," she said.

"Good. They will both make it tough to..." He paused, staring at her. "You're that Cadet."

"What?" Her hands clenched tightly together.

"You stared at me when you left Medical the day before classes started." She blushed. "What were you doing there?"

"Um... I got lost. I had gone in to see if I could get directions, but I didn't have a chance to talk to the two who were there before the headmaster came in." She took a deep breath; how to divert that train of thought? "They think you're dead. At least, they thought you were dead. How do we use that?"

"We?" He looked incredulous.

"We. You are in no condition to do anything much."

"You have barely been here two weeks!"

"And how much training did you get when you became a Ranger?" she snapped back, and that shut him up. At least, he looked at her with big eyes and didn't say anything. She hoped that because he'd been gone he didn't know the curriculum and had no idea she knew things she really wasn't supposed to. Besides, she thought, what better way to find out if I want to stay here?

He shook his head. "How well do you know your way around?"

She laughed. "Since I got lost that day, and got directions from the headmaster, I made it a point to know where I was going before I went. I don't know the executive offices very well, of course, but I was able to find Mr. Stone's office without asking directions last week."

"Right. Can you find your way around the ventilation system?" He pointed to the wall above her head, and she turned to look.

"Probably. But can I fit?" She stood to examine it.

"Yes. They're big." It took her some work - and a few boxes to climb up on - but she got the cover off, setting it gently on the floor.

"So, now what? I'm not leaving if you intend to sneak out."

He looked stumped and frustrated. "All right. Go to the headmaster's office and see if he's there, find out if he's okay."

Sylvie took a deep breath, then nodded. "You're lucky I'm not claustrophobic," she said, and grabbed her datapad. "I wish I had a pocket or something," she muttered, slid it into the vent, and hoisted herself up.

"Wait, what's your name?" he called once she was inside, but she pretended she didn't hear him and kept going, concentrating on trying to make the vents correspond with the hallways on her map. I don't want you to know, she thought. You can't know.

It took her three times before she found herself looking into the headmaster's office, and that was after she got the hang of the whole vent-to-hallway thing. She could see Andros and Zhane, both slumped in chairs, and there was blood on the side of Andros' face. The rest of the room seemed to be empty. "Hey. Psss," she hissed, and Zhane stirred a little, lifting his head to see her. "Hi. Are you two okay?" The words came out before she registered the bruises on Zhane's face.

"Mostly," he said softly, and nudged Andros with his shoulder. He moaned softly, and Sylvie nearly started to cry again. He took a deep breath, then lifted his head. His eyes were clear, and he had a small smile on his face.

"Are they gone?" he asked blurrily.

"We have company." Zhane indicated the vent, and Sylvie gave a wave of her hand.

"Hi. Um... Carlos is okay. Well, he's injured, but he'll be okay," she said first, and smiled at the relief on Andros' face. "Hopefully, he's keeping that under wraps. Is there anything I can do for you?"

" Just a minute," Andros told her, and then movement across the room caught her attention as the wires pulled themselves out of the camera. Sylvie raised an eyebrow and tried not to freak out too much. He was, after all, an alien. "My battlizer," Andros said, almost before the wires were finished moving. "Get it out of here." Zhane stepped up to her and began to pry the vent off and she flinched back in surprise. How had he gotten free? Once he was done, the odd thing that she'd seen in the Secret City floated up to her, and settled into the vent. "Give this to Carlos. It's his." A second wrist band settled next to the first. "I'm going to keep up this charade as long as I can. He didn't say where he was going, but I'm sure he'll hear about the camera being deactivated in here." He chuckled menacingly. "See if you can take out more cameras."

Zhane had put the cover back on as Andros had spoken, and then he turned to untie his friend. "Go, before they get back," he said, and Sylvie grabbed the two morphers and began to back up. She wasn't quite out of sight when the door opened.

"Don't move or I'll kill her," she heard, and shuddered. The man's voice was slimy. Who was he threatening? The fear kept her moving.

Getting back took much less time, and she slithered out of the vent to find someone had joined them. She lounged next to Carlos, her staff leaning against the wall, although she was blonde instead of a redhead. Sylvie went pale and started to climb back in, knocking the boxes down and falling herself in her haste to get out. Someone grabbed her arm and she spun to hit them, only to have Carlos meet her eyes and block the blow.

"Calm down," he said. "It's okay. This is Karone."

Sylvie couldn't speak. That's not Karone, that's Astronema! I thought she was dead! She hid the morphers behind her back and tried a smile. It didn't work.

"She knows me," the woman said, standing. She took Carlos' arm and made him sit down, then turned back to Sylvie. "Don't you."

Sylvie nodded and stepped back, only to run into the wall. "Is Andros okay?" Carlos finally asked, and Sylvie swallowed, hard.

"He's... he's up and... or would be, if he weren't tied. He's..." She glanced at Astronema, then back to Carlos. "He's been injured, there's blood on his face. The security chief..."

"Zhane?" Astronema grabbed her arm and she cringed. "What's wrong with Zhane?"

Sylvie took a deep breath. "He's okay, he was up because he got untied somehow." Her voice was shaking. "He was hit, I think. His face is bruised."

"I'll kill who did that," she muttered, and let Sylvie go.

"But Andros is okay?" Carlos asked. Sylvie glanced at the woman, then moved to sit next to him.

"He gave me this to give to you. He said it was yours." She gave him the morpher, keeping the battlizer to herself. She still didn't know if she trusted Astronema.

"I told you they didn't give it to anyone," Astronema said softly. "You should trust me more."

Carlos laughed, and it sounded choked. "I don't even trust me," he said, and just held the morpher, staring at it. Sylvie gently took it and strapped it on his wrist.

"It looks better that way," she said softly, then looked at the woman. "They're looking for you, too. Only, I don't know if they know this..." She gestured. "... incarnation." She took a deep breath. "Which can be good, you know. They don't know that Carlos is alive, either."

Astronema turned on Carlos, who was watching them in curiosity. "You let Andros think you were dead?" she demanded.

"I didn't have much of a choice," he said. "I was shot."

"Yes, Vincent. The body is still gone." The voice silenced them all. He sounded weary. "Yes, I'm sure I'm in the right place. No, I haven't found the three missing Cadets, or Teena Williams."

"I want you to concentrate on finding Ashley Hammond... Just a minute." There was silence outside. "The cameras around Medical are down. The cameras around the Residences are down. The cameras in your sector are still down. Will can't see you, Eric, or Steve. Keep in touch with David at all times, I don't want to take the chance of losing track of any of you."

"Right."

Sylvie started to open her mouth, closing it at a shake of the head from Carlos. Remember the adventurers, she thought to herself. After a minute, Astronema relaxed. "I hope Andros heard that. Ashley is still free." She turned her gaze on Carlos. "If you morphed, that would speed your healing, you know. It's taking so long because it has been a long time."

He looked at her, expression blank. "A long time," he repeated, then his hands seemed to move before he thought. "Let's rocket!" came out in a whisper, then there was a flash of light and he was morphed, already looking tons better. Maybe it was only because she couldn't see the pain in his eyes any more. Then, without words, he demorphed and threw the morpher across the room. He did look healthier, but Sylvie didn't like the look in his eyes. "What do we do now?" he growled.


	10. It's a Do or Die Situation

10: "It's a Do or Die Situation" - Pat Benetar, Invincible

Cassie struggled to calm her breathing, muttering Eltaran curses under her breath. She should have known she'd curse herself by not getting out and exercising. She glanced at Ashley, who had fallen asleep about fifteen minutes ago, just before she'd ventured out to get information. She hadn't been seen, but she had seen a couple of people she didn't recognize and had run back.

"They have to be somewhere in the building," a voice growled. Cassie froze, hoping she hadn't been seen or followed. "I've checked everywhere. You have to put the computers back online, so we can access a layout of this place!"

"No way." The response was fuzzy, and sounded like it came across a communicator of some sort. "That would put communications up again, and I can't do that. That would bring the current team home way too fast."

"Then give me one of the students, one of the teachers, someone who would know this area. Will says the cameras are out here, too." Cassie gave a silent thanks to Droz for that bit of work; she'd seen him disabling one of the cameras before they'd captured him.

"The head mechanic is out for right now, and no one else is volunteering. Besides, I don't think we can trust them. The head master would rather die than let me get my hands on his wife."

Cassie nodded slowly. It had just become the first order of business to keep Ashley out of their hands. She twisted the communicator on her wrist and wished for contact of almost any kind, to anyone friendly. She half thought of morphing, but knew Ashley would want to do the same, and they really didn't know that much about what was going on with her and the baby. All they had to go on was Justin's tests and the experience from four years ago. There was no telling what effect morphing might have.

"...missing bodies, missing people, if we can't find her, then what?"

"Not finding her is not an option."

"We have a limited time here, Vincent. The team is due back in a couple of days."

There was a silence, and to Cassie, it sounded very ominous indeed. "All right." The voice over the communication equipment sounded furious. "Get everyone back here, and we'll figure out what to do next."

Vincent, Vincent... The name sounded familiar. She turned around to look at Ashley, and met her eyes. "They're going to hurt Andros," she whispered.

"You don't know that," Cassie said, hoping she didn't hear anything more about it. "They might not." She didn't know if Ashley had heard that she was the target of this hunt. Vincent, why was that name so familiar? and bodies? Did that mean someone was dead?

"What did they say?"

"Droz is out for the count. I don't think we're the only ones that managed to get out, and they know the team is coming back in a couple of days." She sighed. "I think we're safe here."

"But the others..."

Cassie shook her head. "They are fine. There are five rangers and about ten ex-Rangers in here, not to mention Karone." She shook her head. "They'll be fine." Whose bodies? Please, not TJ...

"You don't know that."

Cassie turned to look at her friend. "No, I don't, but I have to believe." She sighed. "I know, I can say that really easy, I don't have a husband or even a boyfriend." The one I want is taken, she thought. "But Ash, we've fought with these guys, heard legends... They were Power Rangers. They can't be too wimpy."

"There are over one hundred Cadets, too," Ashley whispered. Cassie nodded.

"I know. And the timing was perfect. Almost all of them are in the Commissary, I bet you, with most of the teachers and some of the other staff. If any of them were found, they probably got taken there, too." She sighed. "At least, that's what I'd do, and that's what Astronema and Divatox tried to do, consolidate all the prisoners in one place." She laughed. "That would be a mistake. I can just see the teachers getting together and breaking out..." She chuckled a little more. "Well, I guess I can count on seeing people in medical once this is done."

"Just please, not Andros," Ashley whispered, and Cassie reached out to hug her.

"I agree," she said softly as her friend sobbed desperately. "I agree." It didn't take long before Ashley fell asleep again, but Cassie didn't move this time, needing the contact as much as Ashley seemed to.

She started awake at a noise in the room, surprised to find she'd dozed, and searched it quickly, then her eyes were drawn to a person in the vent. "Hi. Um. Dr. Chan. Is that Ashley?"

"Yes. Who are you."

"Um. The girl who tried to break her roommate's leg. Hang on a second..." The vent covering came off, then the blonde girl smiled at them. "Hi. Is she okay?"

Cassie sighed in relief; she hadn't really been sure. "Yes. They said something about bodies. Do you know what they were talking about?"

"They shot Carlos, and assumed he was dead," she said, and Cassie nodded slowly, something in her mind going crazy. "He's fine..." The girl drifted off, then shook her head. "He's back with Ast... Karone in our base of operations," her mouth quirked, looking for all the world like one of Adam's half smiles, "but it's getting crowded, and people keep going by. Have there been many people going by here?"

"Not really," she said, and shifted. Ashley opened her eyes.

"Is it safe yet?"

"No," Cassie told her gently. The girl in the vent took a deep breath.

"Andros is okay," she said softly. "I talked to him about an hour ago. He's been captured and hurt, but he's okay." She took something off her wrist and tossed it down. "You keep this. It's giving me goose pimples, and I just can't..." She shook her head. "Zhane is okay, too, they're together," she added, almost as an afterthought.

Cassie moved to pick up what the cadet had tossed down, and wordlessly handed it to Ashley. "His battlizer?" Ashley asked.

"He gave it to me, I think he wanted it away from whoever did it." She seemed to think. "Can you hold out here a while? I need to talk to Carlos and Karone, and see what they want to do. Um. Are the cameras out down here, too?"

"Yes. Some of them."

"Okay. We know they're out around medical too. I'll be right back." She backed up, replacing the cover, and they listened to her movements until they couldn't hear her anymore.

"Who was that?" Ashley asked, looking up from the battlizer she'd strapped onto her wrist.

"I don't know her name. Remember the cadet I told you about, who was trying to learn a move and nearly broke her friend's leg?"

"Yes, I remember. And Jason said something about it when he was talking to Andros the other night," Ashley said.

"That was her. There's something between her and Carlos - she stared at him the day he came in after he and TJ had that fight. He knocked them both over, and she just stared at him. Not like she was seeing a ghost, but..." She shrugged and grinned. "Probably just a crush or something."

"Wouldn't surprise me," Ashley grinned. "He's a good looking man. I thought he was cute as a teenager, but now..." She chuckled, then sobered and shook her head. "And something happened while he was gone."

"I know," Cassie said, and they sat in silence again, huddled together, waiting.

They hadn't been there long when the vent was removed again, and the girl jumped down. Behind her came... Astronema? Cassie got to her feet and pulled the cadet away from her.

"You're right," the woman said. "It is bigger here." She turned around and smiled. "Hi, Cassie... Oh, sorry." She blushed. "I never did tell you, did I." She sounded a little ashamed. "I've been... perfecting the use of this, mostly to see if it will put my nightmares to rest. It's more instinctive than I like, and I wanted more control. It actually seems to be working, too. It's hard, but that's what I was doing when everything went off, including the Simudeck. I haven't had a chance to get back to my room."

Cassie let the girl go and went to help Astronema - Karone - with Carlos. "Good idea," she smiled. Carlos looked pale and tired, and sank to the ground as soon as he could. "Why aren't you healing?" she asked, kneeling next to him and taking his wrist to check his pulse. It was a little higher than it should have been.

He shook his head. "I am. And faster than before." He turned to look at Ashley and smiled. It looked forced. "Hey, Ash. How are you?"

"I'm fine," she said. Cassie smiled at her, then turned back to Carlos.

"It shouldn't be taking this long." He pulled his arm from her grip.

"He was hurt pretty bad," the cadet said softly. "Bad enough that they thought he was dead."

Karone sighed. "Here, Cassie." She handed over an Astro-morpher with distaste, and Cassie glanced at Carlos. "He won't wear it."

Ashley got to her feet. "Why not?"

"We don't have time for this," Carlos said softly. "We have to get rid of these people." He straightened with a gasp, but the pain did not hide his haunted eyes.

"What do we do?" the cadet asked, a little too quickly for Cassie. "We know they think Carlos is dead, but they also know his body is missing. They can't find any of us, obviously, so what are some possibilities? How do we use this?"

"What other assets to we have?" Cassie asked, forcing her mind away from TJ.

"I have a datapad with a lot of information for classes and a layout of the academy," the girl offered with a slight blush.

"We have two inactive but working Power Rangers and a former princess of evil, who actually has some control over her powers," Karone grinned, then scowled. "My morpher is in my quarters."

"Three Rangers," Ashley protested.

"Two." Cassie fixed her friend with a glare. "You are not morphing. I have no idea what that would do to you in your situation. So don't even try to think about it." Ashley sighed. "Okay. Anything else?"

"I've marked up the vents I've been in," the cadet offered. "I can find my way around pretty well in there."

"There's a sentient machine down here," Carlos said suddenly. "I heard them talking about it." He paused. "No. It's gone right now, to report home." He shook his head slightly, as if to clear it.

Cassie grinned at Karone. "What's the chances of being able to get a blaster?"

The other woman smiled slyly. "With or without an injury?"

"With," the cadet said suddenly, "but not around here. We can go somewhere else, and make them think we're somewhere we're not." They all looked at her in surprise, and she blushed. "I'm sorry," she said in a small voice. "I just thought..."

"No, you're right," Carlos said, and the light that filled the girl's eyes made Cassie want to have a serious talk with her. Something was up... and that expression was a very familiar one to her. This girl knew Carlos somehow, and his opinion meant a lot to her. "So, who goes?"

"I'll go, and she'll..." Karone stopped and regarded the girl with frustration. "What's your name?"

The cadet sighed. "My brother called me Vie," she said softly. Cassie glanced at Carlos, but there was no recognition in his eyes. Maybe it was just a crush, she thought.

Karone nodded. "Vie here will lead me over to where there are no cameras, and we'll do an ambush."

"You can't use her as bait," Carlos protested suddenly.

"Why not?" the girl asked defensively, the color in her face deepening a little. "You can't run, Ashley can't run, and someone experienced has to watch over you two. Karone," she swallowed, "can get the gun away from him, especially if she is anything like Andros."

"Anything like Andros?" Karone asked. Cassie smirked.

"He didn't hand me that morpher. It floated... Besides, you're trained more than I am in how to injure someone." She looked a little nervous and a lot scared. Cassie knew exactly how she felt.

"All right," Cassie said, glaring at Carlos when he opened his mouth. He closed it again, looking impossibly stubborn. "You'd better come back," she said softly to Karone as Vie started back into the vent. "I don't want to have to tell your brother and your husband how you died."

Karone hugged her. "Don't worry. You won't have to." She crawled up after Vie, waving one final time, then there was silence.

"What is wrong, Carlos," Ashley asked, and Cassie turned to look at him. He was pale and huddling in the corner, eyes closed.

"Don't ask," he whispered. "Just don't ask."

Cassie reached over, grabbed his chin, and forced his head up. "You have a lot of explaining to do," she said evenly, and watched as his eyes took on a panicked look. "Why did you come back if you weren't planning on talking to anyone?"

"I wasn't planning on coming back at all," he said softly. "Jharf gave me the job and just sent me. If I'd known..." He backed from her grip. "What do you want a blaster for?"

Cassie sighed and allowed herself to be distracted; she needed to give him room. She'd attacked him, and he'd gone on the defensive. She would have done the same thing, in his place. "To give us some offensive capabilities, and some defensive. They want Ashley."

Ashley looked startled. "Why?"

"They were after Andros," Carlos said. "I don't know who this is, but he wanted Andros, and he's concentrated everything on getting Ashley, now. At least, that was the last report we heard."

"Vincent, one of them said. And that name is so familiar, it's driving me nuts!" Cassie sighed and sank down against the wall, trying to figure out why.

A dull rumbling sounded throughout the room, and Ashley blushed. "Oops. Sorry." She pressed her hands to her stomach. Carlos chuckled softly.

Cassie got into her bag and grabbed one of the less than tasty rations and handed it over to Ashley, who made a face. "It's all we grabbed, it's all we had time for, but it's necessary; Justin made sure it was high in the nutrients you need. Just eat it, okay?"

She took it, reluctantly, and ate it with clear distaste. "I really don't like these," she muttered.

Cassie smiled half-heartedly at her, and turned her attention to Carlos. He leaned against the wall with his eyes closed, and she hoped he would recover fully from this whole thing. His health seemed to fail more and more as she watched him. The last time she'd seen him look even remotely this bad was after the accident... She suddenly remembered the "stolen" files, and wondered if Zhane had explained to him that they had been downloaded; somehow, she didn't think he'd had the time. And from that, her thoughts went to the messages they'd saved for him.

"Carlos," Cassie said, trying for a softer approach. He lifted his eyes from the floor and looked at her, and she felt cheered. "Did you read those messages? Bulk said you downloaded them."

His eyes dodged down again. "Some of them, yes." He took a deep breath, almost as if he were going to speak again, but he remained silent.

"Did you call..." She couldn't remember the girl's name to save her life right now. She knew she would, sometime in the middle of the night, and sighed in frustration. "There were a lot from one girl, did you call her?"

He shook his head, and didn't even seem to notice that she'd left the girl's name out. "No. She has a life without me... it's better I don't. I'm just going to leave again when this is over." He said it so softly, but the pain he felt came out in his voice anyway, and she sighed again. Maybe they could change that.


	11. To Secure Peace is to Prepare for War

11: "To Secure Peace is to Prepare for War" - Metallica, Don't Tread on Me

The chair was definitely comfortable. The office was comfortable, certainly, but the chair made it almost lavish. But the best part of the office was the two men tied to chairs across the desk from him. Andros, the headmaster of the Academy, in red, with blood on the side of his face, and Zhane, chief of security, in grey, with bruises. Vincent Corry smirked. It seemed he had done what all the people they had battled had been unable to.

He stood and paced back and forth, waiting perhaps less calmly than he should for news of the capture of Ashley Hammond. He remembered her from the beginning of the semester when he'd been a student four years ago. She was a cheerleader type, the kind he hated. That had been a while ago, and he wondered if she'd changed, especially since she lost her first child. He glanced sideways at her husband, then turned his attention to the field phone as it beeped at him. "Yes?"

"There's a cadet somewhere around Medical," Steve reported. It sounded like he was running. "I just caught sight of her, and I'm following her."

"Catch her, if you can. She might know where Ms. Hammond is. Try not to hurt her, but if you have to, try not to kill her."

"Yes, sir," Steve said, and the phone clicked off.

"Don't hurt her," a voice growled, and Vincent looked up.

"Welcome back to the waking world," he smiled at the headmaster, who scowled back at him, then glanced at the cadet sitting next to him, tied just as tightly as he was. Vincent smirked, knowing he could use her to his advantage. "Are you ready to tell me about the Battlizer?"

"What about it?"

"What you did with it." He tried to keep his temper under control. So far, it was working, but there was no telling how long he would continue to be this calm.

"What could I have done with it? I've been sitting here, tied up." The headmaster didn't take his eyes from Vincent's face. "Don't injure any of the students," he added ominously.

"You were free when I returned," Vincent reminded him.

"You got nothing from the camera?"

"Ah, yes, the camera, which conveniently stopped working just before you got free. Can you explain to me how the wires were pulled out of the camera without Will seeing it?"

The headmaster started to answer, and the phone beeped again. "What."

"I lost the cadet. I clipped her in the side, but there's no blood trail to follow. I'll keep looking, but Will says the cameras are going down fast around here. He says he can barely see anything at this point."

"Are they going around anywhere else?"

"I don't know."

With a sharp jab, Vincent changed channels. "Will, talk to me."

"Cameras are going down all over, especially in Medical. And I can't see who's doing it, either." He sounded frustrated.

"What about the Pit?"

"Nothing moving down there that I can see, but the coverage was never that good, so the cameras that are down leave really huge holes I can't see into. Eric is keeping in real close touch with David, and stops in front of one of the cameras often. And Steve is in contact with David, too. I think he's nervous."

"Good. Thanks." With a sharp jab, Vincent changed channels again. "Steve, any sign of that cadet?"

"No, but someone is up here. I keep hearing them."

"See if you can find them. We've still got people missing. And let me know if the body shows up."

"Whoa. I found her." He was speaking softly, and Vincent figured he'd come up behind the cadet and didn't want her to know it yet.

"Her?" His voice dropped in volume as well.

"Not the cadet. I don't recognize her."

"Describe her." He nodded at the headmaster. "You two listen." The security chief stirred and lifted his head sluggishly.

"Blonde, tall. She's carrying a staff, the top of it is a diamond. She's in black, and it looks like armor, and there might be a breast plate, I'm seeing her from the back. Tall boots... She's turning around." He broke off, and the sound of electricity came across the phone. "She shot something at me!"

"Tell him to get out of there," the headmaster snapped. "Get him away from her." The expression on his face was one of realization and horror. "You don't want to mess with her."

Vincent's head snapped up. "You know who she is?"

"Astronema," Zhane said evenly. "She almost beat us. You aren't Power Rangers, your people don't stand a chance."

"And that is why I am here," Vincent growled with a glare at the headmaster. "Steve. Where are you?"

"I'm around the corner. She's coming this way, I think, I'm going to get a shot off at her."

"It'll only make her mad," the security chief said, his voice shaking. He flinched as the sound of electricity came across the phone again. "You really do not want that." He sounded like he'd had a personal experience.

"See if you can negotiate with her," Vincent ordered. There was silence, and he stared at the phone, willing Steve to say something.

"I negotiate with no one," a youngish voice came over the phone, definitely female. "I have no need to negotiate. I will destroy you all."

"But we can help each other," Vincent protested, managing to keep his voice steady. He thought he did a pretty good job of not begging, either.

"What can you give me? I have the battlizer and one morpher, it will be a snap to defeat the Rangers without two of their number. And your crew is laughable." She did laugh, then. "Prepare for your defeat." The phone clicked off.

He turned to his captives, staring in disbelief as the two of them struggled to get free. "You have to let us go," the headmaster said, out of breath. "We have to..."

"Don't even suggest it," Vincent said lazily. "For all I know, this is part of a plan."

"Believe me, I wouldn't use her in a plan." The headmaster looked at him, wide eyed and scared, and Vincent sat down without taking his eyes off of him. He had never seen anyone quite as frightened as this man was.

"Why not?"

"Because she plotted to overthrow everyone she knew," the security chief said, his words slurring together. Vincent made a mental note to not have anyone hit him again. "And she nearly destroyed us and the earth." He glanced at the head master, who was staring at Vincent. He seemed to have gotten himself under control.

"You don't believe us," the headmaster said flatly.

Vincent leaned back. "Oh, I believe she's who you say she is. I also know she married him," he pointed to Zhane. "And she's your sister."

"She won't recognize those ties when she's like that," the headmaster protested. "I know. We tried to get her to remember..." He trailed off, then sighed. "You should have gotten him out of there."

"But then I would have less information than I had," Vincent said softly.

"Hey, Vinnie. The commissary is going nuts, man, this is unbelievable!" Will's voice from the phone startled him, and he jumped a little.

"What do you mean?"

"It looks like a food fight... I'm taping it so you can see it later. Man, there's a guy in there that can move... Oh. It's over." A short chuckle came over the phone. "Rich shot one of the teachers. Missed the Asian guy, but got the black one."

Vincent looked up. "Who is that?" he snapped.

"TJ Johnson," the headmaster said, looking stunned.

"I don't want to be in your shoes when he gets to Medical," Zhane mumbled. The headmaster shot him an indecipherable look.

"If he gets to medical," Vincent said, and switched channels again. "Rich. Talk to me."

"The cadets started a food fight that the teachers took advantage of. I decided if we shot one, the others would calm down. It worked."

"Is he alive?"

"Yeah, the blonde girl down here, one of the teachers, was asking for a doctor. He's alive for now."

"What did you say when they asked for a doctor?"

"Called David. He said we didn't know where they were." Vincent could almost hear the smirk on Rich's face.

"Good. Thanks, Rich. And good job." He turned off the phone and smiled at his captives. "I guess I'll just have to see what happens when he gets to Medical." He leaned back in his chair, figuring nothing major would happen for a while. "You know why I'm here, of course."

The headmaster looked up from the floor. "I would guess revenge," he said.

"Very good." His face twisted at the condescension in Vincent's voice. "For what?"

He sighed. "You feel you were dismissed unfairly."

"I _was_ dismissed unfairly," Vincent said. "You were grieving for your child, worried about your wife, and the Black Ranger had just disappeared. I can imagine you were in a less than charitable mood." He cast a glance at the Cadet; she was listening, eyes wide, and still trembling. He smirked at her and turned his attention back to the other captives.

"If the baby had been born the day before, alive and well, I still would have dismissed you," the headmaster said evenly. "Injuring other students on purpose was not acceptable. You were dismissed for unRanger-like behavior, not because of how I felt at the time."

"UnRanger-like behavior?" Vincent couldn't believe his ears. "All I did was get rid of the competition!"

"There is no competition among the rangers!" the security chief snapped.

"And what if they had been your team?" the headmaster asked.

"Team," he mumbled, "if they were injured that easily, they weren't worthy of being on my team." He brushed him off with a gesture. "I was following what I was told: get it done, no matter the cost."

"No matter the cost?" Zhane looked incredulous. "So, what would have made us better than Astronema?"

That was obvious. "You weren't trying to conquer the galaxy."

"No matter the cost to yourself," the headmaster mused softly. "We do as little harm as possible, use only enough..."

"Which is why Angel Grove was trashed how many times?" Vincent asked sarcastically.

"Five times once I knew it even existed," the headmaster said, and he even sounded less than thrilled about that. "Ask Tom Oliver, Jason Scott, and TJ Johnson about the other times. I'm sure they know the exact number. It's not something you can ignore, or forget."

Vincent's lip curled slightly. "I don't think I can ask TJ," he said, and leaned back. "You know, I ought to tell you my plans."

"Plans for what?" Zhane asked. The Headmaster stared at the floor and didn't respond.

"For the Headmaster and his wife," Vincent said, and tried to keep the smirk off his face when the Headmaster looked up, eyes wide.

"I told you to leave her alone," he said ominously.

"It's not a good idea to threaten her right now," Zhane said, almost conversationally. "I've never seen Andros mad, but I've heard he can be quite destructive." Then his eyes narrowed. "You're behind the threats they've been getting. Aren't you."

Vincent waved them off. "You're just normal people now," he said. "And she shouldn't be too hard to... well," he broke off at a glare from the Headmaster. "I'm not going to do anything..." He laughed. "I was going to say that I wasn't going to do anything bad, but it is bad, and it will probably hurt, but she'll recover, she looks strong. First thing is to kill the baby, of course. Just like I promised," he added with a nod to the security chief.

They all three gaped at him, and Vincent concentrated on keeping his face straight. The reaction had been better than he could have possibly dreamed. "You can't kill an innocent child!" the Headmaster protested.

"Because it's a child, or because it's yours?" Vincent asked blandly. The Headmaster stared at him. "Second, then, is to make sure she will never have any children, yours or anyone else's."

"You can't do that," the Headmaster whispered. "You'll destroy her. Don't do that to her."

"Yes, it will be rather difficult for her, won't it?"

"Please, don't do that to her." If Vincent hadn't known better, he would have thought the man was begging. The Red Ranger, Headmaster of the Ranger Academy, was begging that Vincent spare his wife. He rather liked the feeling.

"Perhaps," he said. "But you see, if I... damage her, you will both know that you could father children on any woman you wanted to... except the one you really want to." He smirked and enjoyed the pain that played across his captive's face. AOn the other hand, if she were here, I could make that decision a little better, couldn't I?" It would be interesting to see her beg for mercy, he thought.

"I don't know where she is." He spoke it so softly that Vincent barely heard him.

"I know," Vincent responded, just as softly. "It stinks, doesn't it." There was silence in the office, and Vincent decided to let it grow. Let the horror of what would happen, the horror of the unknown grow until it became unbearable for them. One of them had to know where she was. One of them would eventually break.

"Marc! She's by you guys now!" came from the phone, and Vincent picked it up, surprised by the urgency.

"Will?"

"The woman who shot Steve! She's up by the executive offices. She just pointed the staff at the camera and blasted it!" Vincent heard a muttered curse and glanced up; the Headmaster did not like that, he could tell by his expression.

"And?"

"Nothing. We found the camera," Marc reported. "She's not here. It's in... well, it's not there either."

"I can't find Steve," James reported. "There's a scorch mark on the wall, though, and one of his shoes. Could she have killed him?"

Vincent looked at the Headmaster, who could not seem to look up. "She can do that?" he demanded.

"Those people aren't Power Rangers and don't have the protection we did," Zhane snapped. "Tell them to stay clear of her!"

Vincent waved him off. "Yeah, it seems so. If you see her and can get a shot off, kill her. If not, stay clear. That goes for everyone! James, you stay around Medical."

"Yes, sir."

Vincent looked up, furious. "You let him get killed."

"I did no such thing," the Headmaster looked up, and Vincent hid a smile at his haunted expression. "I warned you. You didn't listen to me."

"Hello, Red Ranger, Silver Ranger." The youngish voice came over the phone again, and Vincent scowled at it. She still had Steve's radio. He was going to have to be careful what he said. "I can't see you, but this young man has told me where you are. I can see where and how everyone else is, and he has told me that you are quite helpless. I'll be there soon, to take care of you."

"I'm taking care of them just fine," Vincent growled.

"No," she said. "You're going to let them live. I want them destroyed."

"What did you do to Will?"

"He is of no consequence." There was a sharp click as it turned off, and he stared at the phone.

"If I could just get her to help me out, I'm sure I could find Ms. Hammond," Vincent muttered, and leaned back in the chair. "I wonder how I'd do that.


	12. Can't You See You've Paid the Price

12: "Can't You See You've Paid the Price" - Stone Fury, Lies on the Run

Carlos leaned tiredly against the wall, closing his eyes so he didn't have to look at his friends. Karone and Vie hadn't returned yet; he figured they were trying hard to throw this Vincent guy off. Someone touched one of the injuries on his chest and he flinched away, opening his eyes to see Cassie looking at him with one eyebrow raised. "Calm down," she told him. "I'm not going to bite you, you should know that by now." She sighed. "Take your shirt off."

He straightened a little, wincing at the pain that flared from the movement. It was an unwelcome reminder that he had failed Andros. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I can't get a good look at these injuries through your shirt," she told him. He nodded, pulling it over his head, then looked over at Ashley, who sat in the corner, turning the battlizer over in her hands.

"Is she going to be okay?" he asked, whispering so he wouldn't disturb her. She seemed radiant, glowing, much as she had four years ago. He closed his eyes to cut off the memory.

"We hope so," Cassie said softly. "What about you?"

"Me? I'm fine." He shrugged, grimacing as she probed gently at one of the wounds.

"Carlos," Ashley's voice broke into his thoughts. "What happened to you?"

He opened his eyes and looked to find her standing next to him, and shifted to hide his scars a little better. "When?" he asked finally.

"When you left." Her eyes were open, honest, and he had to look away from her, staring unseeingly at the floor.

"I needed to get away from the memories of Brianna and Harmony." The names fell off his tongue with relative ease, now, thanks to Kyeri. He winced at a new pain, that of memory. He didn't think she'd ever talk to him again. "I sold the house and took off on the next transport out; I guess I was just lucky Ylaran was picked up at that time. He recovered fine, and says thanks for the excellent care."

"Ylaran?" Cassie asked, stepping away. Carlos pulled his shirt back on.

"Yeah. He was one of the cadets injured that year. I guess there were a lot; I heard there was a scandal about it, but none of the details." He'd met the boy again on assignment, and Ylaran had asked him to relay the message. At that point, he'd intended to go home again, sometime... Cassie gave him his shirt back, and he pulled it back on, relieved they hadn't asked about his scars.

"So you left with his family," Ashley prompted.

Carlos turned to look at her. "I was sorry to hear that you lost your child," he said, barely able to get the words out. She smiled and touched his shoulder.

"Thank you." There was a touch of sorrow in her words. "How did you hear?"

"I... I heard before I left. And I'm sorry I didn't say anything then..."

"That's okay. I understand." She sat next to him and slipped her arm through his; he shifted, uncomfortable, feeling trapped. "Where did you go?"

He took a deep breath. "The first stop was KO-35, but Ylaran and I didn't get off the ship. Ylaran was injured, and I didn't want to talk to Kinwon or anyone else who might have recognized me. The stop was short." He paused. "I don't remember where all I went, or even the name of the planet I left Ylaran's company. I did a lot of odd jobs until I met Jharf." He could feel a smile starting on his lips at the thought of the Naga-like being, and it felt a little strange. He hadn't smiled in a long time.

"He runs a... body-guard-for-hire-type of operation. He's the only one I told where I was from and that I was a Ranger, although I wasn't sure I still was; I just kept wearing black because it fit me, fit my mood. He helped me change my bracelet, but I kept wearing it so that I wouldn't get really sick again." He glanced sideways at Cassie, who nodded.

"Good thinking," she said.

"Thank you." It came out a little more sarcastic that he wanted; he didn't want to get too comfortable with them, wanted to stay distant, so when he left again it wouldn't cause them so much pain. They wouldn't need that, on top of everything else.

Ashley nudged his side and scowled briefly at him. "Go on," she urged.

"I took various jobs, nothing really dangerous, until I was hired, with a few others, by Kyeri Akweks to keep her father, Zouriken, safe. He was one of Trey's advisors, so I spent some time on Triforia, then he returned to Jaiquan as ambassador. If nothing else, I can speak fluent Triforian." He swallowed hard. "I went with him. Kyeri, when I wasn't guarding her father, talked to me - I think she guessed, or Trey told her, who I was, or had been - and eventually, I talked to her... We became friends. Because of her, it doesn't hurt so badly to think of Brianna and Harmony." His voice broke, then failed entirely, and he took a deep breath to give himself some space.

They remained silent, almost as if to also give him the space he needed, and he thanked them silently. "I don't think we've ever met Kyeri Akweks," Cassie said finally. "What's she like?"

"She's very understanding. Very..." He cleared his throat; this topic was only a little less painful than the other one. "Not a warrior, and I think she was ashamed of that, sometimes. But Zouriken was understanding of her, and she... She seemed to understand me, and that... allowed me to..." His voice failed again. "To grieve properly, I guess."

Cassie nodded, but he could only tell because he could see her long black hair moving. Ashley touched his shoulder gently. "What happened while you were there?" she asked gently, and he pulled his arm from her grip and got up to get away from them. He felt vaguely smothered.

"Don't ask," he said softly. Someone took his arm, and he turned to see Cassie, smiling at him.

"We're asking, Carlos. Now's your chance to explain." She help up his morpher. "And to tell us why you won't wear this."

Panic filled his mind, and if he hadn't been so determined not to fail again, he would have gone to find the invaders and gotten himself really killed this time. "No," he shook his head. "You don't want to know that."

Cassie pulled him over to where Ashley was, and made him sit down; Ashley slipped her arm through his again. "It's time to tell us, Carlos." There was no room for him to get out of it, and he prayed for Karone or Vie or both to show up again. But the door remained stubbornly closed, and no one appeared in the vent.

"It's eating you up," Ashley said softly. "It's time to let it out. And you know we won't judge you." He gave her an incredulous look. "We won't," she repeated.

Carlos took a deep breath and focused his eyes on the ground. He didn't want to go on, to relive that horror. Ashley nudged him gently again, and he glanced at her, wondering if she could see the panic he was feeling. "While on Jaiquan, I found out what we had been hired for," he started hesitantly. "There was a... terrorist group stationed there, without the sanction of the government, and they were going to attack Triforia, specifically, Trey." The words stuck in his throat, and he cleared it. "I don't know what their grievance was. There must have been someone inside the government associated with them, though, because they knew too much. There were too many coincidences." His hands clasped tightly together. "Zouriken got some kind of information while visiting the main government building, I don't know exactly what, but the minute we got back to the embassy, he ran inside. Kyeri wasn't home, I found out later." Much later, he thought, and gave thanks as he did every time the nightmare crossed his mind. "Not two minutes after that, a mob stormed the gates, and then they were inside, and these people..." His voice failed him again. "I tried to keep them outside, we all did. When it didn't work, we retreated..." He took a deep breath, and glanced at both of them. "It was like reliving the destruction of the Power Chamber all over again," he said softly.

"That must have been horrible," Ashley said softly, and gently patted his arm.

"Not one of the best times of my life," he agreed, and focused down on his hands again. "We were overwhelmed, unable to do anything but fight, guarding the door..." He took a deep breath to calm himself. "I was the last one standing, I don't know how long I held out. Some of them got by me... I heard his death cry before they threw me into a reinforced stone wall." He swallowed. "It... I woke up about three weeks later, I think, but I didn't remember anything, some sort of mercy from someone... I would rather have lived with the pain," he spat out, "but once the medication they were giving me got to addictive levels, they kept me asleep, some sort of 'psychic dampening'. I was out for four months. And when I woke up, I remembered." That feeling of utter helplessness washed through him again, and his shoulders hunched against the memory. "Kyeri had taken her father's place as ambassador, but she was on Triforia. I left and went back to work for Jharf, possibly because no one else would have hired me. He told me where to go and I went, I really didn't care where... And then he told me I was needed on Earth, and teleported me to Andros' office as soon as I accepted the assignment." He could hear the bitterness in his voice. "It... almost killed me. But maybe... maybe he thought..." His voice failed him again and he stared at the floor. There, it was all out. He knew they knew Zouriken; he'd talked about meeting Andros and Ashley once, and how much Zhane reminded him of himself, when he was younger.

"That was you?" Ashley asked in disbelief, and he flinched at her voice. Then a noise from the door made them all look up.

The door inched open, and Karone stepped into the room. She glanced around, then scowled at the three there. "Where's Vie?" she asked.

Carlos' heart sank. "She was with you," he said. Please, no, not again. I can't have failed again.

"I lost her about half an hour ago. She was supposed to get back into the vents and come back here." Karone looked almost as panicked as he felt, then calmed down. Carlos took a deep breath and prepared himself; mourning would come later. Or whatever was necessary. They had work to do. Karone recognized it as well. "Mission accomplished," she said in an even voice, and held out the blaster. Cassie took it. "And, what's more, they're expecting Astronema to show up and try to kill Andros and Zhane. There's no one in Jerome's office, and one of the men is presumed dead." She smirked coldly. "I left him unconscious in one of the closets, so we have this." She held out a radio. "As long as we keep quiet, we can hear them, but they can't hear us. They know I have it, but it could keep Andros and Zhane a little saner if I... "check in" every once in a while."

Carlos stared at the floor. Going on was necessary, he reminded himself. "Now what?"

"Vincent!" Cassie suddenly said triumphantly. "Took me long enough!"

"What?" Karone asked.

"Remember, four years ago, how many injured cadets we had? About half of that class wound up in Medical, and most of them had to go home. Ylaran was one of them. They had suddenly gotten accident prone, or something, no one could figure it out. We had so many injuries that we didn't even manage a graduating class that year. Anyway, Zhane was looking into it for me, because I couldn't believe so many were like that. He found out that one of the cadets was... getting rid of the competition. Vincent Corry." Cassie smiled thinly, and Carlos clenched his teeth to keep from growling his fury out. "That's who this is. Why he wants Ashley, I'm not sure, but I'll bet two weeks paid vacation it's revenge."

"No bet," Karone said. "I'm pretty sure you're right."

"So," Carlos said angrily, once again in command of his voice, if only for a minute, "what are we going to do now?"


	13. Only Habits Left to Break

13: "Only Habits Left to Break" - Dream Theater, Surrounded

The silence in the office was numbing. Andros watched Vincent pace, glancing once at Zhane with a slight grin, then at the cadet on the other side of him. She seemed okay, if a little scared. He took a deep breath. "You know," he said, conversationally, "this is not the brightest idea you've ever had in your life." He desperately hoped this would keep Vincent from concentrating on finding Ashley.

Vincent spun. "Quiet," he growled.

"Inviting Astronema to join you is inviting your own death."

Vincent moved to stand in front of him, and the cadet shrank away from him. "I told you to shut up."

"Getting me to shut up is not going to help you feel better," he said, hiding the smile as he watched the man begin to crack. A sudden commotion outside broke the tension, then the door opened.

"Vincent. There's a woman out here demanding to see you. She's got a guy in black with her, and I think it's the body we couldn't find." Andros stiffened, turning to look at the man. Please, let it be Carlos, he thought.

"Is she in armor?" Vincent asked, stepping back around the desk.

"Yes, sir."

Vincent sat down and leaned back in the chair. "Let her in."

Carlos stumbled in first, and Andros let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. It wasn't that he didn't trust the cadet they'd seen earlier that day, but rather that the not being sure had worn on him. They didn't know her. He watched as Carlos fell to his knees, looking tired and beat, then Karone walked in. She paused in the doorway for effect, then took a step forward and nearly tripped over Carlos. With a snarl, she kicked him, and he rolled out of her way, climbing to his feet.

Andros couldn't keep his eyes off his sister. It was like a nightmare coming true, and he didn't want this nightmare. "I understand you lost one," Karone said, grounding her staff. "It's pretty sad when your people won't even check to see if he's dead. I found him taking out cameras around Medical. You don't have very good security around here." She moved suddenly, aiming her staff at Carlos. "Don't move," she said. Carlos froze, a step closer to Andros and Zhane than he had been a minute ago.

"I'm glad you're here," Vincent said. Andros glanced at Carlos, surprised to see a bit of humor in his eyes. Then he wondered if he'd actually seen it; his eyes hardened in determination.

"Oh? Why is that?" Karone asked. Andros opened his mouth to say something, but Carlos shook his head, just barely.

Vincent leaned forward. "I thought we could go into a... partnership. I'm sure you understand revenge?"

She smiled, slowly, and Andros shuddered. He'd never seen that expression on her face before, and he hoped he'd never see it again. She glanced at Andros, her gaze slipping past him to Zhane, then back to Vincent. Carlos inched towards him again. "I don't do partnerships," she said.

Vincent nodded. "A trade, then?"

She seemed to think about it. "What do you have in mind?"

"I'll give you the Silver Ranger if you can produce the Yellow Ranger."

"What if I want the Red Ranger?" she asked.

Vincent frowned. "He figures highly in my revenge," he said.

Karone paused. "I don't have the Yellow Ranger," she said. "I might be able to find her, though."

Andros straightened, truly frightened. "No, Karone, please..."

"I said quiet," Vincent growled, "or I'll have you gagged. Understood?"

Andros nodded. Please, no, leave Ashley out of this, he thought.

"I told you not to move," Karone snapped. Her staff touched Carlos' shoulder and he froze, significantly closer than he had been. She turned to Vincent. "I will trade the Silver Ranger's Digimorpher for the Yellow Ranger; I have no need of the man himself."

Andros couldn't help it; he glanced at his friend to see the startled, then indignant look on his face. Vincent laughed, and Andros looked at him, eyes hard. That didn't bother his captor, who leaned back in his chair. "I would consider that a good trade," he said.

Karone nodded. "Very well."

Carlos suddenly dropped under the staff resting on his shoulder and swept Karone's feet out from under her. He dove for Andros and with the slash of a knife, freed him, turning to cut Zhane loose as Karone's staff activated, purple electricity dancing around the tip. Andros launched himself at Vincent, hearing the staff go off, then he slammed into Vincent, knocking the chair over, and spent the next little while concerning himself with the younger man.

When he stood up, one of Vincent's arms twisted behind him, Carlos was helping the cadet to her feet. "Are you okay?" Carlos asked gently. The girl nodded, glancing around in some panic. Carlos turned to him. "And you?"

Andros nodded. "I'm fine," he said, "other than not knowing exactly what is going on." He turned his attention to the man he held onto. "Now, Vincent Corry, you have had it. I suggest you get your men to stand down, those that are left."

"Cassie's gone to rally the people in the Commissary," Carlos said, his voice wavering. "I'm not sure how many will be standing." He stepped forward and took Vincent from Andros, which allowed Andros to relax a little. "That was really close, Karone."

"They already put down a riot in the Commissary," Vincent snarled.

Andros sighed. "That isn't going to stop them. If you'd hit a student, maybe, but you hit TJ, who is a fully powered, if inactive, Ranger."

"Sorry, Carlos," Karone said softly, and Andros turned to see her and Zhane locked in an embrace. It didn't look like they were going to let go soon, and he sighed in relief. That _had_ been a ploy. She'd acted it out so well, he'd been afraid she had reverted.

"Karone, can I have my battlizer?" he asked, and it came flying at him. He snatched it out of the air. "Thanks. I hate to break you two up, but we do have things to do. Is Ashley all right?"

"She's fine," Carlos said. "Let's clear this riffraff out of here before we get her, okay?"

"Agreed," Andros said, and turned to Vincent. "Are you going to help or hinder us?"

Vincent sneered. "Hinder, of course," he said.

Andros nodded. "All right." Grabbing the ropes that had bound the cadet, he quickly tied the man to the chair. "We'll do it the hard way."

Vincent took a deep breath and opened his mouth, probably to shout an alarm to the men outside. Before he could make a sound, Karone's staff was aimed at his face, purple electricity dancing on the tip. "Don't tempt me," she said. Andros smirked at the fear that surfaced at her cold words; there was the malice she'd gotten from Ecliptor. He shuddered, glad it wasn't directed at him. "I'm really not in a good mood right now." Vincent closed his mouth, glaring defiantly up at them. He even managed to hide the fear, unless he was really stupid and wasn't scared.

"It's probably going to be best to just knock him out," Zhane said.

"I don't want to hurt him," Andros said, glancing around his office for something to gag him with. He came up with nothing.

"Then I will," Carlos snarled, and rapped him sharply across the head. Vincent slumped, and Andros turned to the cadet, who was staring at them all, eyes wide.

"What's your name?" Andros asked.

"Eh-Amy," she stuttered.

"Amy, will you be okay here? I'd like you to keep an eye on him for a minute. We're going to get rid of the guards," he said.

She nodded, biting her lower lip in concentration. "Is there anything I shouldn't touch?"

"Him," Andros said, pointing at Vincent. "I don't think he'll wake up, but we won't be long." She nodded, and he turned to Karone. "You need to lead the way out. They're expecting you."

"Then let's go," Karone said, and started for the door. Zhane followed her, then Andros, and Carlos brought up the rear.

The two guards were taken completely by surprise and tossed back into the office, knocked out and tied with their own belts. Amy stared up at Andros in surprise, and he smiled. "Come on." He took her to the office next door, Karone's. "Stay here. We'll be back soon," he said, and they left again. He paused only long enough to lock the door to his own office.

The hallways were silent, and Andros shuddered, remembering his thoughts earlier in the day about how dead it seemed. They moved quickly and quietly through the hallways, and Andros focused on what he was going to do once they got to the Commissary.

He shouldn't have worried; Adam and Jason greeted him outside the doors, looking lethal and slightly worse for wear. Their blasters were aimed at Andros' group as they came around the corner, then both of them relaxed.

"Most of the mess is cleaned up in here," Jason reported. "Cassie is tending to the injuries." There was a faint haunted look on his face.

"Is TJ okay?" Andros asked.

"He'll be a couple of days recovering, but nothing major. And Trini is down with a broken leg," Jason said. "Other than that, all the casualties were the bad guys." He said it with some measure of satisfaction. "There was one cadet taken from here, though, and when they did the count, there were three missing already."

"The one they took is fine. She's been with us, and she's in Karone's office now. We'll find the others." Andros took a deep breath, knowing where one of them was. "Okay, let's find out what was going on while we were... disabled." He stepped into the Commissary to find controlled chaos. The students were in groups, probably the ones they'd been assigned to that morning, and each had a specific task to do; most seemed to be cleaning up what did, in fact, look like a food fight. In the center of the room, Cassie stood next to TJ, who lay on one of the tables, with Trini on her other side, face white.

Andros waited a minute, then gestured all the teachers over. It didn't take long to break them into small search parties to get the rest of the invaders, and he sent Zhane to get Ashley. Then he paced, aware of the growing silence in the room and the eyes on him but not caring, wanting to make sure she was okay. Carlos sat off to the side, watching him, watching the door, and he seemed about to collapse.

He didn't know how long he'd been pacing when he turned and there she was, Zhane grinning brightly behind her. "Ash," he whispered, and pulled her close to him, feeling the desperation in her grip, too. He stood there, not caring who saw him, letting the relief wash over him. He heard Zhane take over with the prisoners, sending Bulk to his station to get things up and running again, and to call the police.

When he finally let Ashley go, Carlos stood up and approached him. "There's an injured cadet missing. I'm going to go look for her. Will you be okay here?"

Andros took a deep breath, forcing his mind to confront the task at hand. "Who was it?"

"Her name is Vie. She's the one you gave your battlizer to." Carlos looked worried, and Andros hoped the girl had broken through the walls around his friend. Then it registered what he'd said.

"She's missing?"

"She never came back." He sounded helpless.

"I'll be fine. Go ahead." With relief on his face, Carlos left the Commissary.

Cassie walked by them, one hand on the bed TJ was on. When had they come down from Medical? he wondered. "Andros, bring Ashley and come on. You've got blood on your face."

"Huh?" he asked, then Ashley gently touched the mostly healed gash on the side of his head. "Oh," he mumbled, and nodded, half releasing Ashley but keeping one arm around her waist. He never wanted to let her go.

"Where did you get that?" she asked.

Andros sighed. "It's a long story. I'll tell you tonight."


	14. You Can't Miss Something You Never Had

14: "They Say You Can't Miss Something That You Never Had" - Gin Blossoms, The Cajun Song

Sylvie woke up at a burning in her right side, and bit back a moan. She had no idea what had happened while she slept, or even where, exactly, she'd ended up. She was actually reclining against something that felt... wrapped around her, and she opened her eyes to look at it. What looked back surprised her.

It was a machine, shaped a little like a horse, at least the head was. She reached out to touch it, running her fingers over the smooth, warm metal. After a minute, she decided it was time to get back to the room she'd been in; no reason to make everyone worry about her. She started to climb to her feet, and only then realized just how much it hurt to move. "Great," she muttered. "Get used to it, Vie. It's part of being a ranger. If I ever get that far."

She finally managed to stand up and looked at the machine she'd been leaning against. The rest of it looked like a horse as well, and she could hear the hydraulics as it stood. It shook itself a little and paced off, away from her.

Looking around, she had no idea where she was. At least, not until she saw the head of a huge lion zord against the wall. The Pit. Now, if only she hadn't left her datapad in the vent, she could probably get back. At least to the main building. "No, bad idea," she murmured. "What if those people are still here?"

A sound across the room made her turn, and she gasped in pain and went down on her knees. They can't find me! she thought, panicked, and searched for a place to hide. There wasn't much, but she did her best, crawling slowly and painfully towards something that looked like a very large eye. She curled up behind it, noticing only then the grease stains on her uniform, never mind the dirt from the vents. Then the noise repeated itself, closer, and she turned her attention back to whoever had come in. Her left hand found something she could throw, and she gripped it almost desperately. If they were going to take her, it wouldn't be without a fight. Slowly, she moved into a position she would be able to see from, and peeked over the equipment she was hiding behind.

Whoever it was hadn't come into sight yet, but they were coming closer. Sylvie shifted her weapon to her right hand, and prepared to fire. As soon as she got a big enough target, she threw the piece of machinery. She didn't expect the fire that ran up her side from the movement, and gasped as she collapsed back to the floor. This time she couldn't stop the tears, mostly of pain, that streaked her face again. It felt like she had ripped her skin off her ribs or something.

"Vie?" The voice took a while to penetrate her brain, and she tried to find enough breath to answer. Mr. Valerte, her mind kept repeating. Mr. Valerte, not Carlos. "Vie, is that you?"

"Mr. Valerte?" she asked finally.

"Yes. Where are you?"

"Hiding behind..." She didn't know what to call it, but cautiously stuck her foot out, hoping he'd see it. Even that movement hurt. "Over here," she added.

"Are you okay?" He knelt by her and gently pulled her onto her back.

"Mostly," she gasped out as little bits of machinery dug into her back and her side. "But one of them shot me..."

"So I see," he said, moving her jacket to see where the blaster had burned through the shirt she was wearing. "That looks bad."

"It hurts." She closed her eyes a minute. "Okay, help me up. I figure if you're here, they've caught the Vincent guy, and it's safe to go back."

"Help you up?" he asked.

"Yes. You aren't in any condition to carry me; you got shot four times. I've only been shot once." She began to sit up, and he stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder. There was amusement in his eyes, and she smiled wryly at him. It wasn't too long ago that their positions had been reversed.

He touched his communicator. "Bulk?"

"Yeah, Carlos?"

"We need a medical bed down in the Pit. One of the missing cadets is down here and injured."

"I'll send someone right down." The communication was cut off, and Carlos settled a little, then pulled her up so she was resting a little more comfortably against him.

"How did you like experiencing our life for a little while?" he asked after a moment. Sylvie, who had been enjoying his nearness again and had nearly fallen asleep, forced herself awake.

"Oh... I don't know. It was scary. Did you get scared every time you went into battle?" She'd never had the chance to ask him that, but it had bugged her for a while. Especially since she'd been in the Academy, and had seen what they had all gone through.

"At first," he admitted. "The first time I did any fighting as a Ranger, I only knew one person on the team, and that was Ashley. I knew she was a game fighter, but I didn't know anything about TJ or Cassie, and Justin... Justin had been a Power Ranger all summer, so he knew something of what we were going into. He was younger, but had combat experience."

"Were you surprised when you were chosen?"

"Yeah, a little." He grew quiet, then, and shook his head when she opened her mouth. Then she heard it, little noises, and glanced up at him in some panic. He was focused on the sounds. She knew she was in his way. Holding her breath so she wouldn't make any noise, Sylvie moved so she wouldn't impede him if he had to react quickly. He looked at her gratefully, and shifted so he was in a better position to defend them, if it came to that.

"Hey, Carlos, you down here?" The voice was one Sylvie only vaguely recognized, but Carlos breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, Skull. Over here." He stood, and Sylvie sighed, partially in relief and partially in disappointment. She had enjoyed spending time with him again, but she'd been rather afraid he'd ask her about herself, and she still didn't want them to know. It was better for them all. Without warning, he picked her up and set her gently on the bed, and he and Skull pushed her across the littered floor of the Pit. Before they even reached the tunnel to the main complex, she fell asleep.

When she woke up, she was in Medical, and a pretty black woman stood over her. "I'm glad to see you're awake," she said with a smile. "My name is Mrs. Johnson. How are you feeling?"

Sylvie took a moment to take inventory of her aches, and found them to be greater than she'd imagined. "Sore," she said. "But I don't feel much in my side. Is it okay?"

"It'll be fine. You'll have a nice scar there, but you shouldn't have any trouble moving." She patted her arm gently and moved away.

"Is Mr. Valerte okay?" Sylvie asked. The woman turned back.

"Carlos is fine."

"Is he still here?"

"No. He's gone to Triforia, but TJ says he'll be back before the end of the semester." The woman smiled. "You got close to him, didn't you."

"Well, as close as he'd let me," Sylvie said.

"Which seems to be closer than anyone else has. I guess shared danger does that." She started to walk out again.

"But is Karone okay? And Cassie and Ashley?"

"We're fine, Vie," Ashley said, stepping into the room. Sylvie suddenly realized she was pregnant, and just stared.

"You were pregnant?" she gasped as the black woman left.

"Yes, which was part of why Vincent attacked." She sat down in a chair. "Carlos said to tell you he'd be back soon. Although soon, when traveling in space, is longer than on earth. But he will be back." She scowled. "We have a way to track him, now."

"Good." Sylvie relaxed a little, and found herself sleepy. Before she could even make excuses, she fell asleep.

She was released the next day, still tender in the side and still sore. Her first order of business, finding that she felt a little guilty now that she actually knew Cassie more than just in her memories, was to find Zhane and tell him what she'd done. She trusted he wouldn't tell Andros who she was, if she explained well enough why she didn't want them to know. Her other reason was to explain why she needed to get into the vents again - she wanted her datapad back.

She found herself in front of his office not too much later, and took a deep breath before knocking on his door. "Come in!" he called. She opened the door and stepped cautiously in. "Yes, can I help you?" He was busy with paperwork, and looked a little harried.

"I need to talk to you about some... things," she stuttered slightly. "And I need your assurance of privacy, unless you really feel the information is important to tell someone."

He looked up, then, setting his pen down on the desk. "Close the door, have a seat, and go ahead," he told her, then tilted his head at her, slightly amused. The amusement faded almost immediately. "You're the cadet."

She blinked. "Sir?" she asked, startled.

"The cadet in the vents, the one that told us Carlos was okay."

"Yes, sir. Which is one reason I wanted to talk to you."

"About?"

"I left my datapad in there. I wanted your permission to go get it." She shifted nervously.

"Done. What's the other reason?"

"I don't know if you've found out yet," she said, and took a deep breath, "but I was the one that hacked into the medical files about Carl... Mr. Valerte's accident four years ago." It all ran together, and she looked at him hopefully, not wanting to repeat it.

He looked as if he'd been struck between the eyes. "Why?"

This was the part she didn't want to tell. She took a deep breath and started. "Um. Because I'm Sylvie Larson, and I had to know what happened, no one here could tell me, and I didn't want to ask, I didn't want anyone to know I was here, because I knew people would think it was because I knew Carlos and Andros that I got in at all..."

"Stop," he said, and she did, staring at him over the desk, suddenly aware of the tears on her cheeks. "You're Sylvie Larson? The little girl that got caught up in the whole Secret City thing?"

She nodded. "Well, I'm not so little anymore, it's been nine years," she said.

"No, I can see... Did you bring that doll with you?"

The question came out of the blue, and she stared at him. "Yes..."

He nodded. "That clears one thing up. No, two." He took a deep breath. "You didn't want to tell anyone you were here?"

"No. I mean, I know that you wouldn't take someone who wasn't qualified, but if people knew you knew me," she gestured helplessly, "then maybe they wouldn't take the Academy as seriously. This is bound to create some kind of press, I don't know if good or bad, but I don't want to be in it, if you can manage it."

"That's why you said your name was Vie."

"I couldn't let Carlos know. I couldn't let anyone know. I didn't expect to get caught in this..." She gestured helplessly again, and he laughed.

"Welcome to the life of the Power Rangers. Are you okay? I heard you were shot."

"It still pulls, but mostly I'm fine. I know I was wrong to hack into the files, but I didn't know what else to do, and I didn't expect this to happen."

He leaned back in his chair. "No, that's just the way it works." He reached forward and pushed a button. "Bulk, is Michelle still in?"

"Nope, she's gone to visit her folks. What do you need?"

AVerification on a story. Got anyone in mind, who can keep a secret?"

"Maya."

Zhane nodded. "Good. Send her up here, will you? She should be able to help." He turned his attention back to Sylvie. "Maya is empathic. She'll be able to verify if you're telling the truth."

Sylvie opened her mouth to protest, then nodded. "Okay. I understand, I guess, but..."

"I know, you don't want this to get out. My predicament is that Vincent had to get in somehow, and we've got people looking into the whole hacking idea. We haven't found anything but you, yet, but if we can rule you out, then we can start looking elsewhere." He sighed. "I have an idea that you wouldn't be involved in this; but as you said, what if I overlooked you just because you knew us..." He nodded. "Very sticky. If your story proves true, I'll keep your identity from Andros until the end of the year or until you have to leave. Fair?"

"Yes, fair. And if it doesn't prove true, I'd expect to be kicked out anyway," she said. "And about my datapad?"

"Oh. Yeah, do you know where it is?"

"Yes. Only... I don't know where we were in the Pit from the outside," she said sheepishly.

"That is easily remedied." He touched the communications button again. "Karone, would you come down here, please?"

A knock on the door heralded the arrival of Maya, and Zhane performed the little interview with calm and poise. Sylvie barely kept her attention on the Silver Ranger; the other woman's intense gaze was a little distracting. "She's telling the truth, no question," Maya informed him. "There's a lot of emotion involved, but she's not hiding anything in what she's saying." She looked at Sylvie, considering her. "She's very open about this. Pretty amazing."

Zhane grinned. "Thank you, Maya."

"Anytime," she grinned back, and left, holding the door open for Karone to enter.

"Oh, you found her!" Karone looked happy to see her. "I'm glad."

"Karone, this is Sylvie, plus nine years. It was her doll that gave you that nightmare," Zhane explained. Karone blinked and stared at Sylvie, who squirmed a little.

"Oh. That would explain why you were so frightened when you came out of the vent the first time, right?" Sylvie nodded. "It was a bit of a shock to me, to say the least. I hadn't expected someone to be frightened of me."

"Karone, it's really important that you don't say anything to Ashley, Andros, Cassie, Carlos or anyone else about her. She hasn't said anything yet because it could look bad on the Academy."

"Okay," Karone smiled. Sylvie smiled back. "So, what am I here for?"

Zhane stood and moved around the desk to his wife. "She wants to get her datapad back and to do that, she needs to be in the room in the Pit where you all hid out."

"I never saw the outside of it," Sylvie admitted sheepishly.

"Oh, of course. Come on." She led the way down to the pit, walking in silence for a while. "I don't quite understand why you didn't tell anyone who you were," she said as they stepped out of the elevator.

"Mostly, I was afraid that people would believe that I got into the Academy because I knew Andros, not because I was good enough to make it. And that would reflect badly on the Academy; people would begin to question the integrity of it."

Karone nodded as they walked through the tunnel to the Pit. "I think I understand."

"What was it like," Sylvie blurted out, and immediately turned bright red. She couldn't believe she'd actually said that! She really hadn't been aware she'd been thinking about it.

"What was what like?" Karone asked with some amusement.

At least she wasn't angry. "Um... being you... her again?"

Karone opened a door, waving to Droz, who watched them with some curiosity from across the Pit. "It was... interesting," she said after a minute. "I wouldn't want to do it very often. I almost hit Carlos again, with my staff."

"Why did he go to Triforia?"

She paused, and Sylvie stopped building herself a ladder from the boxes in the room to look at her. "He went because he needed to talk to someone. At least, that's what Ashley told me. But I heard a rumor that he was a hero there, and they hadn't known it was him."

"Doesn't surprise me," Sylvie said shyly. "I've always thought he was a hero." She climbed up and pulled the cover off the vent. She crawled in, then immediately crawled back out, unable to believe how small the vent was. "Will you wait here for me?" she asked, hoping Karone didn't ask why. She didn't think she could explain herself. Karone grinned.

"I won't leave without you," she smiled.

Sylvie returned quickly, trying not to think about how much smaller the space had seemed this time. She sank down on the floor at the base of her ladder and just shook for a while, glad to be out of there. How had she ever managed to get around there the whole time she had? She distracted herself by checking the data pad, and wasn't too surprised to find that it was dead. She'd have to recharge it that night.

"Are you okay?" Karone asked.

Sylvie took a deep breath and stood. "I'm fine, thanks." She even managed a smile that felt real.

They stepped out the door and came face to face with a metal horse head. Sylvie jumped back, staring at it, and got the distinct impression it was laughing at her. After a second, she realized she must have looked quite funny, and laughed. "Thank you, for hiding me," she said after a minute. The machine seemed to nod, and ambled off with a contented air about it. Droz came up as it vanished behind the remains of... something large.

"What happened?" he asked. "Did it bother you?"

"No," Karone said, smiling in some confusion. Sylvie, still giggling, shook her head.

"That thing is hard to get used to," he said, looking after in with a frustrated expression

ABe nice to it," Sylvie said. "You'll be surprised what might happen."

"I am nice to it," Droz mumbled, shooting her a glare that his smile nullified. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got work to do."

Karone led the way back to the main building, and Sylvie waved good bye as their ways parted. She entered the room in time to hear a shout of anger. "You two are just stupid! How can you be... Here, let me do it!" Amy shoved the other two out of the way and typed something on the datapad hooked up to the terminal in the wall. The monitor beeped and the information they had apparently been seeking scrolled down the screen. Then, with a frustrated sigh, Amy retreated to her bunk and her own datapad, turning her back on the rest of the room. Subdued, Sylvie plugged her data pad in to recharge, then asked Portia if she could borrow hers. With it, she headed down to the practice mats to study and practice, something she'd missed way too much the last couple of days.


	15. True Guilt is From Within

Writer's Note: If you submit a signed review, I will respond. Promise.

* * *

15: "Find Me Guilty When True Guilt is From Within" - Metallica, The Thorn Within

A knock at her door caused Maya to look up from her report, and she smiled as it slid open. "Hi, David. I thought you were to be gone today." She winced at how awkward it sounded; she still had troubles with English, even after years of serving with "Earth grown" Rangers.

"I was supposed to be, but I slept in, and then Zhane asked me to give this to you before I left." He handed her a small packet.

"Why did he not just send..." She caught sight of the red "confidential" stamp on the envelope and stopped. "Oh."

"What is it?" he asked. Maya smiled.

"I can't tell you," she said teasingly, but it was only partially a joke. "It means only that he has something he needs me to do, and it has something to do with disciplinary action here in the Academy."

David nodded. "This happens a lot?"

"No, not really." She smiled. "Call me when you get back in, okay? You still owe me dinner."

He scowled at her. "Is that a dismissal?" he asked.

"Probably one of the nicest you'll get," she responded. "Now go; I don't know if I must attend this now or it can be later." He looked like he had another question; more than that, she could feel his curiosity. "Go on, and if I can explain, I will. Fair enough?"

He nodded reluctantly. "Fair enough. I'll see you tonight, then."

"I look forward to it." The door closed behind her and she sighed, then turned her thoughts resolutely to the message, rather than the messenger. She'd been half expecting this assignment for a while, ever since the invasion three weeks ago. She pulled out the papers and began to read.

They had found traces of a hacker - which Zhane had graciously defined for her - in the medical files, and from there Jacob was able to trace the movements, what had been done. Or that was what she understood, which, frankly, wasn't much. But she did understand that he wanted her to sit in on the interviews. That made sense, actually, and she left her quarters to head for his office. He wasn't there when she arrived, so she stood outside his door and waited. She could feel his emotions while he was still quite a ways away, and was rather surprised at how jumbled and strong they were.

"You're projecting enough to give me a headache," she told him as he came into sight.

"Sorry, Maya." He didn't look like he felt well, and considering what she was picking up, she wasn't too surprised. "I guess it's redundant to say that I'm worried."

She smiled gently. That was an understatement! "Yes, a little. Where do you want me?"

"In Andros' office for now, or Karone's, whichever is best for you. I'll come get you... I've got sort of an idea of what I want to do. And I apologize ahead of time for giving you a headache."

"That's okay. I've managed to survive the last three years of 'graduates', I think I'll survive this." She knocked on Karone's door, and entered at the invitation. "Hi. Can I stay in here until your husband decides he needs me?"

Karone smiled. "Of course! What is this about?"

Maya grimaced. "I don't think I can tell you, but he's very upset about it. He's conducting interviews, and he wants me there."

The sharp sense of understanding cut through Maya's thoughts, and she hid a wince. "He found someone to start on," Karone said.

"Yes." Maya took a deep breath. "He's going to wear himself out today." She almost added an 'I think', but changed her mind. The way the air felt, it would turn out that way.

A burst of emotion behind her made Maya wince again, this time unable to hide it. "Are you okay?"

"I thought Zhane tried not to get involved with the Cadets," Maya said, glancing almost involuntarily at the wall behind her, where Zhane's office was.

Karone straightened. "He doesn't. Except this semester was an... exception, because of the invasion. There are a couple he's... gotten fond of."

"Fond enough that he's giving me a headache." It was more of a joke, rarely understood by those not telepathic or empathic. She winked to let her know it was a joke.

The door opened, and Zhane smiled wearily. "Ready?"

The worry from Karone surprised Maya, although it shouldn't have. She knew how much these two loved each other. "Yes," she answered, and left the room, closing the door behind her. They would need the privacy, and Zhane needed Karone right then.

The hallway crackled with energy, although the security guard at the end of the hall didn't seem to notice. Well, she was used to that. But she could tell something was going to happen today.

Zhane came into the hallway, emotionally a little steadier. "Maya, would you get Portia Shaw from the big conference room and bring her to..." he checked the notes in his hand, "interview room four, please? I'll meet you there, I need to find someone to do the retrieving after this. I want to know your first impression when you open the door."

"Of course." She walked off to the one large conference room in the academy.

She opened the door to a strange tableau. All four cadets sat in the chairs provided, but emotionally, three of them huddled together. The fourth, a blonde, seemed to be focused on calming herself down. Maya raised an eyebrow, wondering why she was so nervous. Then she scowled briefly to herself. She would have been nervous in this position, too.

"Portia Shaw." The cadet in the center of the three, a tall, dark haired girl, stood.

"That's me," she said.

Maya smiled. "Follow me, please." She turned and left the room; the door closed behind them.

The fear in the cadet was real, but there was also curiosity and some suspense. It was almost funny. She found the room Zhane had mentioned, and stepped in. He hadn't arrived yet. The cadet glanced nervously around, then stood to the side of the room, in plain sight of the doorway. Maya leaned against the wall, waiting.

Zhane came in and sat down at the table; Portia moved to stand in front of him.

"You are Portia Shaw, of room 14b?" he asked, opening a file folder.

"Yes, sir."

He checked her file. "You were in the cafeteria during the incident two weeks ago?"

Confusion pressed on Maya. "Yes, sir," Portia answered.

"How are you at computers?"

She panicked, and Maya raised her eyebrows. Had they gotten the right one by sheer luck? "Horrid, sir." Truth laced her words.

"Horrid?" Zhane was as surprised as Maya.

"Yes, sir. My friend - well, she's my roommate, too - her name is Leia, we have been taking tutorials from Amy, one of the other roommates, when she felt like giving them." Maya got the feeling she didn't like Amy much, along with a sense that she was struggling to get rid of that feeling.

Zhane nodded and wrote notes on a piece of paper. "Do you know a Vincent Corry?"

In the pause that followed, Maya almost laughed at the sense of desperate searching. "No, sir," she said after a minute.

"How well do you work in groups?"

"Pretty well." Her confusion was as much in her tone as the feelings Maya got from her.

"What do you mean?"

"Well..." She paused. "It's getting obvious who is a good leader and who isn't. If they aren't it's very difficult to do what they say."

"Because you can do it better?"

"No," she said immediately, then seemed to reconsider. "Well, sometimes. I'm not really a leader; I've always been a good follower. But the good leaders will let you say something, they'll listen to you, and at least consider what you've said."

"How do you like being here?"

"It's hard," she admitted after a minute, during which Maya was not surprised to feel her emotions tugging at her. "But I've learned a lot, and I'm glad I came."

Zhane nodded. He'd made notes as she'd spoken, and Maya would have loved to get a chance to read them. "Thank you." He made another note on the paper. "Return to your quarters, and join the rest of the cadets for lunch," he said. "And ask the security guard outside to step in here, please."

"Yes, sir." She turned to go, pausing at the door, but she didn't say anything, and almost immediately Simon stuck his head in.

"Yes."

"Bring Sylvie Larson, please. Slowly, Simon." Talk about curiosity, Maya thought with a wry grin. Not to mention the emotion lacing Zhane's words, especially when he said the cadet's name. She wondered about the story there.

"This isn't a normal dismissal, is it?"

Zhane sighed. "Just do it, Simon. I'll explain later."

"Yes, sir." The redhead ducked out again.

"You startled her."

"I was trying to," he said shortly, then shook his head. "I'm sorry, Maya, but this really bothers me. Now, what else did you pick up."

"A little panic at the computer question; I think she's got the idea that if you can't use a computer, you can't be a Ranger."

Zhane laughed. "Huh. She should meet Rocky. He's the bane of those things. How he managed to pilot his Zords... well, the power had something to do with it..." He sighed. "Anything else?"

"Honesty. She actually tried to think of everyone she knew when you asked her about Vincent Corry. And the reactions after that were... mostly confusion. She did try to remain honest; there were flashes of guilt when she talked about working in groups."

"What about when you went in to get her?"

Maya paused a moment. "That was odd. They are all roommates; they should get along, at least have some sort of connection with each other. One of the girls held herself so far apart, it was if she had alienated the others."

Zhane looked up at her. "It wasn't the other way around?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Definitely not. They would have included her in the comfort if she'd let them." Her face twisted again, not sure if he understood what she was trying to say, but he didn't ask any further questions.

Zhane finished writing his notes as Sylvie Larson stepped in, her emotions almost in as much turmoil as Zhane's. What a pair, Maya thought. Then she recognized her, and understood why there was so much emotion in Zhane's feelings about her.

"You are Sylvie Larson of 14b, correct?"

"Yes sir."

"And you were with Ranger Valerte, Karone, Ranger Chan, and Ranger Hammond most of the time during the invasion, correct?"

"Yes, sir." The questions seemed to calm her, although her emotional reaction to all of them was varied; she wasn't entirely sure why the cadet would be so angry about Carlos. The fear, faint and almost buried she felt at Karone's name wasn't so hard to fathom.

"Are you good with computers?"

"Yes, sir." She felt resignation, and Maya was confused. Resigned to what?

"How good?"

"Good enough to get into Ranger Chan's files, sir, about Ranger Valerte, and his accident four years ago." Maya nodded at the truth that laced her words; she remembered the girl's confession earlier. She'd have to remember to mention that to Zhane - if he hadn't already put it down.

"Did you do anything else?"

The cadet paused. "No, sir. I tried other places until I hit on the idea of the medical files, but I didn't go near security or anything like that. I'm not that good, and I had no reason to." She sounded as if all hope were stolen from her, and the amount of despair confused Maya.

"You didn't use the medical files as a jumping off point?"

She stiffened and panicked internally. "No, sir. I wouldn't do that."

"Do you know a Vincent Corry?"

"No." Some emotion entered her voice. "Well," she said suddenly, "I did hear his voice and might recognize it again." Maya blinked at the emotional turmoil related to those words; what exactly had happened?

"How well do you work in groups?"

The question surprised the cadet. "Actually," she said. "I like it. There are things that would be easier for just one person to accomplish, but we make it work." She seemed about to go on, but didn't.

Zhane looked up from his notes and smiled. "How is your injury?"

"Better, thank you." She seemed a little more relaxed now, thought the resignation and disappointment was still there. "Still hurts sometimes, but mostly I don't feel it."

He nodded. "Good. Return to your quarters and join the other cadets for lunch. And Vie," he added as she turned to go, "would you keep quiet about the Vincent Corry thing?"

She nodded and let herself out; Simon was sent after Amy Connor. Zhane looked expectantly at Maya. "There's a lot of emotion linked to Carlos' name," she said. "Very intense emotion, most of it good, with some anger. She was almost meticulously honest. And she felt... almost desperate when you asked her about computers."

Zhane tilted his head, still writing. "Really. Do you have any idea why?"

Maya paused. "Probably because she thinks this is the end of it for her. She made a mistake, and now she's going to pay for it."

"Was she telling the truth?"

"Yes. Definitely."

The door opened, and Amy walked in as Zhane closed Sylvie's file and opened another. The room was filled with icy control, and Maya shivered. This was the girl who had held herself aloof from the others. If she was the one Portia had been taking tutorials from, Maya couldn't blame her for not liking her very much.

"Amy Connor, of room 14b?" Zhane started.

"Yes, sir."

"You were in the Cafeteria, and in the Headmaster's office with the Headmaster and the Chief of Security during the invasion?"

Maya barely heard the cadet's confirmation; she was reeling from the hate the girl exuded just from mentioning Andros' title.

"How good are you with a computer?"

"Good enough to tutor my roommates. Well, two of them." Maya blinked at the disgust she felt. Did this girl like anyone?

"Good enough to break into the secured files of the Academy?"

"No, sir." Maya stiffened, then stood straighter. There was no truth in those words. Zhane didn't look at her.

"Do you know Vincent Corry?"

The onslaught of emotions from the cadet nearly knocked Maya flat; as it was, she had to brace herself against the wall. He was someone she liked, and more than liked; she worshiped him, gave everything she had to him...

"No." No! Maya's thoughts echoed, and she tapped her foot once. Zhane looked at her, and she shook her head; his eyes widened slightly. That was the signal they had worked out when she'd started working with him in this. She sighed softly in relief; at least he was a little prepared.

"How well do you work in groups?"

"I'm improving," she said flatly.

"Improving how?"

"It's... very hard to take orders." The disgust she felt was plain even in her words. "But I'm getting better at it."

Zhane nodded. "How?"

"Mostly, swallowing comments I might make at some of the suggestions for solving problems."

He nodded again. "Why did you lie about knowing Vincent Corry?"

Maya gasped at the panic and fury that literally rolled off the girl. It stopped suddenly, replaced by icy determination. "I didn't lie." Hate for Zhane flared, and Maya shook her head to clear it; too much intense emotion from one person.

"How do you know Vincent Corry?"

"I don't." There was no desperation in her voice, but the icy calm and certainty of purpose was enough to warn Maya that something was going to happen. That, and the feeling of electricity in the air increased enough that she could almost feel the hair on her arms standing on end.

"Did you break into..."

"Zhane!" Maya nearly shrieked and lunged for the cadet, who pulled a knife from her sleeve and lunged at Zhane. Just in time, Maya got hold of her hair as Zhane leaped backwards, knocking his chair over, then the knife stopped moving. ASimon!" Maya called, and the security guard stepped in. He took one look at the scene and pulled Amy away from the knife; as soon as she let go, the knife clattered to the floor.

It didn't take long for Simon to restrain the cadet, then Zhane took a deep breath and moved, leaning on the table. "Now, how about you tell me what you did and why before we call the police?"

She spat at him; he flinched back and sighed. "All right, this is going to take a while. Maya, you want to get some more chairs? Simon, you'll need someone to take your post. And tell the fourth cadet to return to her quarters until lunch; I won't need to speak with her after all."

"You'll be all right?" Simon asked.

The relief from Zhane was almost strong enough to touch, and Maya could also feel sorrow and anger in him. "I'll be fine." He nodded towards a corner of the room, and she looked up to see a small, eye-like stalk wink at her.

Simon nodded. "All right."

Maya followed him out, found more chairs, and returned about the same time he did. With him was TJ Johnson, bursting with curiosity. She'd never had that feeling from him before, and it made her want to laugh. "Can _you_ tell me anything?" he asked Maya with a sideways glare at Simon, who took the chairs from her.

She shook her head. "No, sorry."

He sighed in frustration. "Why not?"

She laughed. "You know why, TJ. I guess you're Simon's replacement?"

"Yeah, but this is so unusual," he muttered as she and Simon stepped back into the interview room.

Maya stepped into her room, weary beyond belief, and stared at the bouquet of flowers sitting on the table by her bed. There was a card leaning against it, and she sank down on the hammock to read it. 'Call me when you get in. David' it said, in his bold handwriting. Standing up again took almost more than she had, and she touched the small communications port on her desk, reaching David fairly quickly. "Hi," she said.

"Hi. You look beat."

"I'm sorry, I am, and I don't think I can do anything..."

"You don't have to. Can I come see you for a minute? Have you eaten?"

She tried to remember, staring at his image on the screen for some time before she heard him calling her name again. "You blanked out on me," he said when she asked what was wrong. "I'll take that as a no. See you in a few."

The screen went blank, and she stared at it, so exhausted she could hardly think. She hadn't moved when the door behind her opened, then hands took her shoulders and firmly guided her to the couch and made her sit down. "Let me guess. You haven't rested at all since I brought you that package." David's gentle voice brought her out of the daze she'd fallen into, and she nodded, smiling tiredly.

"No," she said. "There hasn't been time. And all the emotion..." She drifted off, then took a deep breath. "But Zhane said I could tell you about it; you'll find out tomorrow, anyway."

"Are you sure you want to?"

She became aware of his restrained feelings, and smiled. "No. But can I lean on you for a minute?"

He smiled. "Of course." He settled next to her and she leaned against him, her head on his shoulder. Touching him, his emotions were a little stronger, and she finally found the curiosity he was feeling, somewhere beneath the worry and care that was on the surface. "Will you be okay?"

She sighed. "He had her believing Andros was some kind of monster, that he'd been tossed out because Ashley lost her baby, then Carlos disappeared." Her own memories of that were pretty vague, mostly because she'd graduated the year before and had been on assignment with her team. "She was... wanted to be there when he..." Just the memory of the girl's expectation and actual excitement about Vincent's plan for Ashley was enough to do it; she burst into tears she didn't know she'd been avoiding ever since she'd gotten back to her room.

She had never been so glad she'd made friends with David. He just held her, letting her cry her eyes out, his hand gently stroking her hair occasionally. Finally, the tears subsided, leaving her more exhausted than she had been, if that were at all possible. "Feeling better?" he asked.

"A little," she said softly.

"Good. Hungry?"

She pulled away from him a little to look him in the face, then smiled. "I think so."

"Good." He stood up and pulled her to her feet, then had her sit down at the table. "This is the best I could do, but I hope it'll help you feel better," he said, setting a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in front of her, accompanied by a glass of milk. He sat down and ate with her, then cleaned up as she leaned back in her chair. "Now, bed?"

She nodded. "Thank you for dinner," she said softly. He helped her stand and walked her to her bed.

"You're welcome." He turned the covers down, gave her a hug and kiss on the cheek. "Call me when you get up, okay?"

She nodded wearily; he let himself out, and she fell into the hammock. She was asleep within seconds.


	16. Do Dreams Come True?

16: "Do Dreams Come True, is it True That You Dream" - Leatherwolf, Wicked Ways

Andros was just sitting down to lunch when he saw three of his teachers converge on Zhane, who seemed to be just finishing up. "How many teams did you work with?" Jason Scott asked as they sat down across from him.

"Regularly or at all?" Zhane asked. Andros moved his tray a little closer to hear better, trying to be quiet about it. He had the feeling this was a conversation he wouldn't want to miss.

"All together," Kimberly Hart clarified.

"Two. One before the cryo-sleep, and one after. Why?"

"We need you to observe someone for us," Adam Park said.

"Why?"

"I asked Tom Oliver into observe her, and only succeeded in giving him nightmares," Jason said with a rueful wince. "I recognize a little of what she's doing, but we think you might be able to tell us more about it."

"Each team we've sent out has had the option of a sixth man," Kimberly jumped in, "but few of them have wanted or needed one. And, it can feel like an invasion of the team, especially when you've been put together as a five man team," she added. Jason and Adam nodded, both looking a little uncomfortable.

"So, what do you need me for?" Zhane asked. He looked interested, and Andros closed his eyes in despair. Now he was off after this...

"One of the cadets is acting like a sixth man," Jason said.

"To what team? I didn't think we'd split them into permanent teams yet," Zhane protested.

"We haven't," Kim said, echoing Andros' amazed thoughts. "But it doesn't matter. She still does it."

"We split the cadets into random five- or six-man teams, and she shines in the six man position," Jason explained. "And she seems to love it. She doesn't care which team she's on. She'll take orders from who ever is in charge, most of the time, unless they don't make sense. At which point, she launches her own plan." He shook his head.

"There have been times that she made it a four man team, with her as an auxiliary. It's worked, too," Adam added.

"All right," Zhane said, and grinned at them. "Who is it?"

"Cadet Larson," Adam said.

"Vie?" Zhane said, incredulous, then sighed. "Who else," he muttered, and Andros just stared; he couldn't help it. He knew Zhane tried not to get too close to the cadets because it was too hard on him when they had to go, but he knew this one, and that was odd. "Yes, I'll watch her. But what will that do?"

"You're the only real sixth man we have," Kim said. "Tom and Jason don't really count. We want to know if she is a true one, or just doesn't work well with teams. If it's the latter, she'll have to go."

A shadow crossed Zhane's face, and his shoulders slumped. "I can't help you, then."

Andros blinked, nearly missing the confusion that filled the teachers. He couldn't help them?

"Why not?" Jason asked.

"I'd love to, I would," Zhane protested. "But I know her; she was involved with both me and with Karone during the invasion. Anything I said in reference to her could be biased, and anyone who found out could use that against us." He sighed. "I'm really sorry, guys, but there is nothing I can do." He stood up and walked away from them, leaving the three teachers slumped dejectedly at the table he'd been at. Andros watched him go. Since when had that ever been a concern?

"There's got to be someone," Jason muttered, jerking Andros' attention back to the teachers.

"But who?" Kim asked, and pillowed her head on her folded arms. "My head hurts just trying to figure this out."

"Hey, Jase? What about Trey?" Adam asked, and Andros almost smiled as life filled them again, and Kimberly sat up.

"That is a great idea," Jason said. "Let's see if we can get permission to ask him to come."

"Andros is right there," Kim pointed out, and the three converged on him. In spite of the fact that he was older and their employer, he realized then how much of an intimidation force these people had been as Rangers. He straightened slightly. "We have a question," Kim said with a smile as they settled down around him.

"Which is?"

"We need to call Trey and invite him here, to observe a cadet," Jason explained.

"Why?" Maybe he could get more information out of them.

"You heard us talking to Zhane, didn't you?" Adam asked. Andros sighed.

"Yes, I think."

Jason launched into a description of the cadet, and Andros found himself nodding. "Yes," he said, interrupting him. "You will need an unbiased opinion. Zhane told you about her connection to us?"

"Yes," Jason said.

"Good. Don't tell Trey that. He's been called in before, so it shouldn't be a problem." He paused. "Unless he can't get away. I'll make the call."

"Thanks," Jason said, and the three stood up to leave.

An urgent beeping at his belt startled Andros, and he jumped to his feet in surprise, his hand going to the irritating noise. "I hate these... what are they? Pagers?" He took it off, read what was on the screen, and his eyes widened. Something was wrong with Ashley. "Jason, have Zhane call Trey." He dashed out of the Commissary without any explanation.

Justin was in medical before he was, and he and Cassie hovered around Ashley, who looked pale. Stepping up closer, Andros took Ashley's hand. "What's wrong?"

"False alarm," Cassie said, looking up at him. There were way too many shadows in her eyes. "Apparently, the baby _still_ isn't getting enough nutrients." She turned away and washed her hands in the sink. "We'll keep her under tighter surveillance, now, and see if we can do any better. We may have to resort to injections."

"We'll have to keep a closer eye on you," Justin confirmed. "I know, I know." He patted Ashley's arm at her frustrated expression. "But this is when it gets tricky. Your body is being perfectly Earth human, and the baby isn't. You're going to have to let us monitor you pretty closely, if you want to keep this baby."

Ashley sighed. "All right." Andros helped her sit up, and she wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest. He held her, his whole attention focused on her.

"I can't believe this," Ashley muttered softly. "I'm already about to go crazy, and this happens." She took a deep breath. "But we knew this would happen."

"Do you have to stay in bed?" he asked softly.

"I don't think so. Cassie or Justin would have said something."

"Good. I'm going to see about letting you out far enough to go to the park; if not that, will you settle for a trip up to the Simudeck?"

"Yes," she breathed softly, "anything to get out of here."

"Okay." He kissed her gently, and was surprised when he looked up to ask a question and found they had all left the room "You get dressed, and I'll chase the medical staff down."

* * *

It took him about two days to realize he wasn't up to both the Academy and Ashley, and promptly dumped the Academy in Zhane's lap. Zhane wasn't surprised or happy, but turned the security forces over to TJ and basically picked up where Andros had left off. Or so Andros assumed from the briefings he got each evening. Things were progressing well. 

"She what?" Andros asked, surprised, staring at Zhane.

Zhane grinned, and Andros got the impression this was some kind of revenge for him. "She's definitely the 'sixth man' the teachers thought she was. She can lead, but only in certain crises, and she'd rather not even then. Trey is helping out a little, with her and a couple of the other cadets, to give them more training in that area. In fact, I thought you'd like to see what happened today." He touched the monitor in the wall, and requested a file from DECA. "Trey set this up. We had two teams against each other, and left Cadet Larson as neutral. That meant she could switch sides."

"Did she?"

"Watch." The smile on Zhane's face was definitely vengeance. The requested file began to play, and Andros stared as the battle went on for nearly half an hour with no obvious winners, which had to be some kind of record. Then suddenly it was over. "Freeze image."

"What happened?"

"Cadet Shaw proposed they neutralize her, and the next attack did that. They actually learned to fight against a non-standard sixth man." He smiled proudly. "I didn't even think of that angle."

Andros sighed and leaned back. "Do we need to develop _that_ as part of the curriculum, too?" he asked. "Both the sixth man program, and how to fight against one?"

Zhane blinked at him. "I don't know. Well, the later, definitely. It was an educational experience for all involved, including me and Trey. About the sixth man program, I wondered that, too, but I don't think so. I mean, this, so far, has been something so different from anything else we've seen. Maybe we won't see it again..." He drifted off. "But the chances of that are really slim. On the other hand, I can have someone..." He scowled. "No, I'm going to have to do it, aren't I? Because I'm the only one qualified." He stood up to pace. "We could offer an alternate class, though," he said, and Andros grinned. He liked watching his friend think. "Especially if I work it up when this semester is through, so I'm ready if something like this does happen again. May be unfair to the cadet that's stuck with me, but it could be the only thing that keeps them alive. And we could combine it with this exercise." He waved at the frozen image.

Andros watched him pace a little longer. "What would this class consist of?"

"How to work with an alternate Zord, so to speak. Timing, too, I think." He flashed Andros a grin, and Andros grinned back. He knew exactly what Zhane was talking about.

"What about dealing with a close knit team?" he asked.

Zhane slowed down. "I can't do that one. You guys always welcomed me, and that first team... wasn't close knit."

Andros grimaced. "Yeah. Well. Maybe Tom Oliver? I don't know how the others reacted to him. And talk to Jason. He might give some insights in that, although they knew him."

"Trey as well. I bet he's worked with a few other teams than the Zeos," Zhane said.

Andros nodded. "Okay. For right now, I guess we'd better leave this all as it is, since Trey is helping out. He's probably the best we've got for this." He scowled at Zhane, remembering why Trey was there at all. "So, how do you know this Cadet?"

The expression on Zhane's face defied description. Andros stared at him in disbelief as he opened his mouth to answer two or three times before grabbing a chair and plopping down in it. "Do me a favor," he said after a minute. "Promise me you will not look into her or anything?"

Andros blinked, then nodded. "Okay."

"Your word on it?"

He blinked again; this was serious. "My word."

"I can't tell you. I promised her I wouldn't."

Andros stared at him, rendered speechless, then shook his head. "All right, but you will sometime, right?"

A smirk played around Zhane's lips. "Oh, you'll find out. Believe me, you'll find out."

* * *

"Three months of avoiding this," Andros muttered to himself, seated at his desk, "and I get pulled into it all of a sudden." His mind was not on the paperwork, it was on Ashley, and he hoped, when he thought about it, that they would understand if some of the things he signed or wrote made no sense at all. 

A beep on his desk communications signified someone trying to get hold of him, and he turned it on, anything to keep his mind occupied. "Yes?"

"You might want to be up here for this," Cassie told him, her tired brown eyes twinkling at him.

"Now?" he demanded.

"Yes, now, and hurry, okay?" She signed off. Andros left the screen on and left his office at a run.

When he got to medical, Justin and Cassie were hovering around Ashley, who looked exhausted already. He moved to stand next to her, and she took his hand, gripping it tightly as the pain of a contraction ripped a cry out of her. "You know," she said when she'd gotten her breath back, "this isn't much worse than some of the injuries..." Another contraction made her squeeze tighter. "... I've had in this occupation," she finished. "Just a different kind."

"Okay, Ash, concentrate. You're about done," Justin told her, and her grip on Andros' hand tightened even more. He wouldn't have believed she could do that. Then, with a strange gasp from Ashley, it was done. Cassie wrapped the crying child in a blanket as Justin took a look at the instruments Ashley was hooked up to.

"Congratulations, Andros. It's a boy," Cassie said from right beside him, and he turned to look at her, astonished. She elbowed him aside with a smile on her face, and laid the baby next to Ashley. It quieted immediately.

"Did you hear? A boy," Ashley whispered, and Andros looked at her. Her face was pale, but she seemed okay - and was more beautiful to him than he'd ever imagined.

"I heard," he finally choked out, and Cassie chuckled next to him.

"No to intrude on your bliss," she said softly, "but I'm taking two weeks off, and I'm going to sleep the whole time."

"Go, and welcome to it," Andros said automatically, somewhat surprised that his brain was still working.

"Not yet you aren't, Cass," Justin said, and the Asian girl took the child from Ashley and gave him to Andros to hold.

"Go out there," she said, pointing to the waiting room. "We'll let you back in as soon as she's feeling a little stronger."

He went, confused and suddenly worried, barely aware of the small miracle he held in his arms. At least, until it moved and gave a soft, hungry sounding cry. "Oh. Oh, wait, Justin? Cassie? What..." Someone stuck a bottle in his hand and showed him how to feed the child; he found himself a place and sat down, watching the boy suck down what ever had been in it. Then he gave a satisfied little burp - Andros reminded himself to never let the child near Carlos or Bulk - and fell asleep.

About that time, Justin returned, grinning. "Okay, she's doing great. How's he?"

"Sleeping. I thought of something, though. Her milk isn't going to be enough, either, is it?"

Justin sighed. "No. But there's a shipment of stuff coming out from KO-35 for him. He'll be okay."

"And she's okay?"

Justin paused. "Yes. She bled a little too much, so we got some blood back into her, got the bleeding stopped... she's asking for you."

Andros blinked to get the worry away from him. "She's okay?"

"She's fine. She'd like to see you."

"Me, or the baby?" he asked wryly, and Justin grinned and gestured him into the other room.


	17. Come to Power

17: "Come to Power" -Leatherwolf, Rule the Night

Sylvie fidgeted nervously, waiting for Mr. Scott to meet her for her lesson in the combination move she'd seen him do near the beginning of the semester. She'd already warmed up. The mats were almost empty of students practicing; she hadn't noticed the number dropping until today. Most of the students were gone now; some had quit because they thought being a Ranger would be easy, some had gotten injured, some had been dismissed, most of those honorably. She tried not to think of the one dismissed dishonorably. She hadn't particularly liked Amy, but it had been such a shock to find that she was responsible for the whole invasion thing! She'd almost caused Carlos' death, and Sylvie had tried for a while not to hate her for that.

Her hand brushed the letter in her pocket and she smiled. She hadn't seen him around, but Carlos had returned. Her mother had written that he'd called, looking for her. Sylvie had been afraid that would happen, and had asked her mother to tell him she was in a boarding school and couldn't take calls - which, technically was true - and that she'd write Sylvie and let her know he'd called. She said he'd sounded weary, which Sylvie could believe. Mrs. Kwan had told them to expect something like jet lag while traveling through space.

"Sorry I'm late," Mr. Scott said, stepping onto the mats next to her. "I had to find a willing victim."

"Gee, thanks. You didn't tell me I was going to be a victim," Mr. Park said from his other side, and flashed a grin in her direction. Sylvie raised an eyebrow. He _did_ smile! Imagine!

"Victim?" she asked suddenly, as his words sank in.

"This is the final test. You've gotten good, and I wanted to test you on it."

Sylvie felt herself freeze. "Test?" she squeaked, and the two teachers exchanged smiles. Against him? She'd checked out some vids from the library, just to take a look at the different fighting styles of the teachers, and had been absolutely floored by Mr. Park's quickness. Then she gave herself a mental shake and stepped further onto the mat, refusing to be intimidated by the Asian man that stepped up to face her.

"Okay, Adam," Mr. Scott said. "Attack her."

She saw him moving towards her, and without much of a thought, her arms and legs flowed into a defense. Then someone was clapping and she looked to see Mr. Park flat on his back on the floor, grinning delightedly at her. She couldn't help but stare. Three smiles in less than five minutes! That was something of a miracle, had to be.

"Okay, Jase, I give, but I want to know the counter to that one." He got to his feet, rubbing at one leg, and Sylvie blushed. That was exactly where she'd gotten Portia so long ago.

"Talk to Tom. He's the only one who's come up with a counter move for that. He actually bested me once with it." Mr. Scott turned and clapped Sylvie on the shoulder. "Congratulations. You have mastered it."

Sylvie blinked, then broke into a wide smile. "Really?"

"Really."

She bowed to him, unable to quit smiling. "Thank you for teaching me."

"Thank you for asking." He bowed in return. "It has been a pleasure."

She turned then to Mr. Park, who had straightened, and with a straight face offered her bottle of Ibuprophen. "I happen to know that hurts," she said. "Would you like one?"

He blinked at her, then shook his head. "No, but thank you."

She nodded and tucked it away again, then left the gym for her room. She had to write Portia and tell her she was no longer being tutored privately. At least, not by Mr. Scott.

* * *

Sylvie dodged behind a boulder, trying to keep out of sight of the beings she knew had to be out there. The simulations had gotten almost dangerous lately, and she'd nearly been injured a couple of times. Behind her, the five man team was finishing up the initial guards they'd run into in their rescue mission. She kept moving around the perimeter, her eyes mostly outward, knowing they were out there. Whatever they were. She knew she was inexperienced - they all were - but Trey had said for her to trust her instincts, and she was. Besides, the force guarding the hostages was way too small, too easily defeated. There had to be more.

The battle sounds picked up again behind her, and she spun but didn't move toward them. This group was a little larger, but still something the team could handle. She started moving again, trying to keep all areas in sight without showing she was there. The expected attack happened just as the team defeated the second line of guards. It was luck that it was a sector she'd just passed, so she switched direction, laying into the small ambush with an ambush of her own. It was all the more successful because she surprised them.

"Sylvie!" Hunter Dillon's voice was furious and frustrated, and she wondered how long he'd been calling her as she took out the last of the... she could never remember what they were called, this particular brand of foot soldiers. Dusting her hands off, she moved toward the group gathered at the mouth of the cave. "We're leaving," the figure in red said tersely, and Sylvie nodded to him. "Watch our backs."

Sylvie nodded again, shortly, eyes narrowed as she scanned behind him. She still didn't feel particularly safe. "Can you spare a pair of eyes?" she asked.

"Cam. Would you mind joining Sylvie?"

The girl in the pink armor moved to join Sylvie, and she led the way back a ways. "You keep an eye out over there, I'll watch over here. Okay?"

Cam chuckled. AWorks for me."

Seconds later, the simulation shut off, leaving the six-man team standing in an empty room. Sylvie sighed in relief and deactivated her training armor, shifting slightly and wincing as the skin over her ribs pulled. "Thanks, Cam," she said softly.

Cam flashed her a grin. "Sure, no problem!" she said cheerily.

"Where were you?" Hunter demanded, his own armor gone as well. Sylvie blinked up at him, surprised.

"I was on the perimeter, like you told me to be."

"I was yelling at you!"

Sylvie took a deep breath. "I was kind of busy. Sorry."

"Busy doing what?" he spat.

Sylvie kept from rolling her eyes, but only barely. "DECA, display Cadet Larson's last position," she said.

The area she'd left at Hunter's yell reformed, neatly displaying the creatures crumpled around the rocks and trees. Sylvie's eyes widened. She'd taken out that many?

"She was right, too," Trey added, moving easily into the room. "You didn't need to call her in. One of your team could have been the rear guard. All you had to do was let her know you were moving."

"Without calling her in?" Kelly Bowen asked. "Why not?" He'd been blue this time.

"Because there might have been another group, like that one. She took care of them because it was an ambush, exactly what they'd planned for you."

Taking a deep breath, Sylvie nodded. "I thought there might be more."

"Good," Trey said. "There was another group, but we ran out of time. Very good, all of you. Report to Ranger Kwan's class."

They left at a trot. Cam dropped back after a few strides to jog next to Sylvie. "You knew?" she asked.

Sylvie shook her head. "Nothing so... obvious as that. I just didn't feel safe."

"I felt fine." The petite brunette shook her head. "I don't understand."

Sylvie chuckled. "I don't either. Trey said that's the difference of a team person and a sixth man. You guys fight with this coordination that I find almost frightening. You almost seem to know where each of the others is. I'm surprised at the end of these simulations that one of you hasn't killed another. I couldn't do that."

Cam's brows swept together. "You mean, we have a predisposition to one or the other?"

"I've wondered that, too," Adeline said from Sylvie's other side. The group slowed as they reached the main hall. "I mean, I think the problem with Mack was that he could do both, and could never decide between them."

Sylvie chuckled. "Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I mean, there's Mr. Scott's friend, Mr. Oliver. He was both."

"But he had time to change, and adapt," Luz Carver offered in his accent that so often reminded her of Carlos. He'd been black that day, and it had been rather disturbing to her. "I asked him about it once, and he said that the transition was a very difficult time for him."

"Changing the way you think and the way your instincts work can't be easy," Sylvie agreed, then they spread out and waited for their next instruction.

After dinner, Sylvie returned to the practice mats, trying to perfect the combination move she'd learned from Mr. Scott. He showed up occasionally still, to help her out or give her tips, but usually, he wasn't there. Tonight was one of those nights.

She was on her way back when a familiar voice stopped her in her tracks. "I'm just worried, that's all." It was Carlos, and he sounded exhausted still, as if he hadn't recovered from the battle.

"So she can't be reached. As soon as she gets home, she'll call you." Andros sounded almost as tired, but there was a satisfaction to his voice that made her smile.

"I'm not so sure. I ignored her for almost... five years now!"

Andros chuckled. "Yeah, I know. Bulk told me when she finally quit calling. He sounded sad." Silence followed his words. "Listen, I know you're tired. You've been busy. Go to sleep. Get a lot of rest, and this will all work out, okay?"

Carlos sighed, a long, drawn out sigh. "All right, I'm going." There was silence, then his voice, farther away, "I'm still worried."

"Sleep. It will look better in the morning."

Sylvie realized that the Headmaster was heading in her direction, and with a sudden burst of speed, she dashed for her room, hoping he didn't see her. She arrived in the room she shared with Adeline and Cam out of breath.

Adeline raised an eyebrow. "What had you running?" she asked.

Sylvie grinned. "The Headmaster," she said easily, and swung up on her bunk. "He makes me nervous."

Cam snorted. "You didn't back down from Hunter today, and he makes you nervous?"

"Hunter's not a ranger..."

"Yet," Adeline said quickly.

"...yet," Sylvie added, her lips twitching in mirth, "but the Headmaster is."

"So's Trey, and he doesn't make you nervous," Cam said.

"Oh, so you're telling me the Headmaster _doesn't_ make you nervous?" Sylvie demanded playfully.

"No, I'm not saying that at all," Cam grinned. "I would have run, too."

"Not me," Adeline said. "I would have wished him a good night and walked back here. And probably lost my dinner as soon as I got here," she added.

"Do you think we'll make it?" Cam asked softly, breaking the jovial mood.

"I've wondered the same thing," Sylvie said, sobered. "But pretty much I've decided that I have done my best, and even if I don't become a Ranger, it isn't because I didn't try. No matter how far I get, I've gone farther than I thought I would."

Adeline perked up. "Yeah! That's true!"

"It is. And even if I don't get to be a Ranger, I can do things I couldn't before, and I know things about me that I didn't before." Sylvie shrugged with a grin. "That won't keep me from trying, though!"

"No way," Cam agreed.

After lights out, Sylvie lay awake for a long time, talking to Delilah. "I may be totally wrong," she whispered when she got around to telling the doll about the conversation she'd overheard, "but I think he was talking about me. I'm not sure why he'd be worried, though." There was really nothing she could do to ease his worry, short of telling him she was there, and she wasn't about to do that. She sighed softly, then lay relaxed and fell asleep.

* * *

The next few days sped by so fast, Sylvie barely had time to breath. They did more simulations that increased in intensity each day, and Sylvie woke up with nightmares again. The only saving grace was that these nightmares were not like the ones she'd had after the Secret City incident; they were less real. And she was glad of that.

Early one morning, Sylvie was awakened by Karone. "Get dressed and lock everything in your locker," Karone said softly, "and meet me in the hall."

"What time is it?" Sylvie asked groggily, throwing her blankets back.

"Quiet," Karone admonished. "3:30. Hurry." The woman was gone before Sylvie could ask anymore questions. Moving quickly, Sylvie activated her personal light, and quickly dressed. She put her belongings in her locker, threw her blankets back over her bed in an attempt to make it somewhat presentable, then turned her light off and left the room.

When she stepped out of her room, blinking at the brightness of the hallway, she was surprised to see Zhane with his wife. "Come with us," Karone said softly, and they flanked her, leading her through the halls in silence. Sylvie wondered about the concern in their eyes, then her curiosity grew worse as it became obvious that he was heading toward the administrative offices, and then right to Andros'. Karone gestured Sylvie in, then closed the door behind her, just as Sylvie noticed that Andros looked exhausted.

"Cadet Larson, I'm sorry about this." He stood up, and her eyes widened, tears threatening to fill them and spill over. He couldn't possibly be dismissing her, could he? "One of our teams is in serious trouble. Due to..." his face took a sour look, "...political considerations, you're the best choice we've got."

Her jaw nearly hit the floor. "Uh... yes, sir."

He smiled shortly. "Yes?"

"It seemed the right response."

"Will you go?"

"Yes, sir." Her hands clenched to fists at her sides to hide how they trembled.

"Good." She thought she detected relief in his voice. "Ranger Chan is on leave; you'll be taking her rations for yourself. We can get you there quickly, and give you a change of uniform when you get back." He moved around the desk and ushered her out of the door, then handed her a datapad. "That's the information you'll need. Go ahead and start reading now."

Slightly overwhelmed, Sylvie did as she was told, surprised to find herself reading about a war. She was barely aware of the hand that closed around her elbow and guided her through the empty halls. She became aware a short time later that they'd stopped and Andros was holding a conversation next to her.

"Oh, it'll work, but how and why, I don't know. I think I've programmed the specs in so she'll match their Zords." Justin half smiled. "He said it'll work for someone worthy, but what that means, I don't know." He placed something in Andros' hand, and almost immediately, Andros shuddered.

"That was weird."

Justin nodded. "It did that to me, too, but then left me alone."

"Keywords?"

"Not that I can tell." Justin looked worried. "I just barely got it. It's more complex than anything I've seen so far, and working with a being that has to have a translator is hard anyway."

Andros nodded sharply. "Thanks, Justin. Go get some sleep."

The younger man laughed shortly, and wandered off as Andros gestured for Sylvie to go on ahead of him.

"We prefer to do this with a ceremony," he told Sylvie, "but since we don't have time even for your final, this will be it." She stiffened and looked at him, eyes wide, but kept moving. "We aren't sending you in unaided, however. This was given to us by Chameleon." He opened his hand and showed her a small, silver coin that glinted in the lights as they continued toward the pit. "We'll be sending you on the fastest glider we have." He stopped her. "It's purely a support and rescue mission," he said sternly. "You need to stay out of the line of fire if you can."

Sylvie swallowed and nodded, and he started walking again. "We're sending extra ration and first aid supplies with you." They reached the end of the stairway and he paused, his dark eyes fastened on her. "Here."

He placed the coin in her hand, and her fingers closed reflexively around it. An odd feeling shot up her arm, and then she lost all sense of standing at the bottom of a metal stairway next to the headmaster. Instead, she stood in a large room, lined with what looked like file drawers. It was well lit, except for one corner that seemed positively dark and oppressive. She stared at a... quicksilver being who reminded her of the horse thing she'd met during the invasion, except that this one did not seem to be able to hold it's shape very well. "Who are you?" she asked.

"Chameleon," it said, but she would have sworn it hadn't actually spoken. "Your mind is very bright."

"My mind?" she repeated, almost stupidly, as it ambled - sort of - to one of the walls around them and pulled open one of the drawers.

"Yes."

"What are you doing here?" She remembered one night, when her mom was in bed, and she lay across the bed next to her, ready for bed herself. They were laughing, and had been laughing all night. She smiled softly in remembrance. It had been a fun evening.

"It should only take a minute," the being interrupted.

"I'm not sure I have that long." She felt a datapad in her hand, and glanced down at it; it was the one Andros had given her just minutes ago. She held it up, displaying the screen to it. "I have to help this team. They think I can slip in and give aid without being noticed."

"What's over there?" It pointed to the darker corner.

"That's the memories of things I'm not very proud of," she said. "Please, I really need to help..."

It moved faster than her words, and she was brought up short. The memory flashed across her mind, how she'd found out about Carlos, blackmailing him - and the connected memories of Brianna and the time she'd spent with them, the time she'd babysat during a school dance because she'd promised she would before she'd been asked to go. She flushed a little, then she was standing next to Andros again, and a shudder shook her.

"You okay?" he asked.

"That was weird," she said softly. "What was it?"

He looked contemplative. "I think it was checking your worthiness. I don't know what it might have been testing for, though. And it might have been checking to see if you already had power. At least, that was the impression I had."

Sylvie nodded. "Oh," was her intelligent response.

Andros gave her a half grin. "Are you ready?"

Sylvie took a deep breath. "As ready as I'll ever be."

"Good." He started off again. "You understand what you are to do?"

"Get the rations and supplies in to the Rangers," she said. "Undetected, if possible."

"Do your best. You'll do fine."

The pit was busy in spite of the hour, and Droz met them with a hot pink glider. Sylvie winced at it, and Droz smiled sympathetically. "It's not pretty but it will get you there," the mechanic told her.

Sylvie nodded. "Do I have to morph before I get on?" she asked, almost hesitantly.

Andros paused. "It would probably be a good idea."

Sylvie opened her hand and looked down at the coin she held. "But... how?"

With a small smile, Andros told her gently "That's up to you."

Her eyes widened. "Me?" she squeaked.

"You."

Taking a deep breath, Sylvie closed her eyes and tried to relax, and the words came. "Chameleon, neutral," she murmured.

Silver slid from the palm of her hand, coating her hand and moving quickly up her arm, coating it and the rest of her body almost too fast for the eye to see, and finishing by closing over the fingers of her other hand. The metallic eased into a dull, light gray. Her boots, gloves, belt and visor part of the helmet were a shade darker.

Andros smiled, one eyebrow lifted. "The glider is programmed to get you there quickly."

Sylvie was glad of the uniform; it hid her trembling. She nodded in response to his words, and stepped onto the glider. As soon as she did, that same quicksilver flowed around it, dulling the bright pink to the light gray that matched her uniform. She stared in surprise as she realized that she could understand the glider. With only a thought, she sent it winging out through the doors into the night sky.

* * *

Sylvie's return was much less marked - and just as late. The quicksilver melted off her, forming a delicate bracelet around her wrist. "Thank you," she whispered, and glanced around wearily. She wanted nothing more than to crawl into a bed and sleep forever. Or at least until lunch time.

"Can I help you?"

She turned startled eyes on the handsome black man who had approached her, wiping his hands on a greasy rag. "I guess... direct me to the main complex, please. How late is it?"

"It's 4 am," he told her. "Where did you come from?"

She gave a short laugh. "The Parkra system. What day is it?"

"Tuesday." He gestured off to her right. "That's the way back in."

"Thank you." She turned and started the rather long trek back to the main complex. She held the datapad that had her report, and she wasn't entirely sure what to do with it. There was only a skeleton crew awake, if there was anyone, and she couldn't even be sure her room was still open. Knowing it was Tuesday didn't help her much; which Tuesday was it?

She found herself in front of the Headmaster's office, and still unsure, she sank down, leaned against the wall next to the door and waited. Someone shaking her shoulder woke her up, and she jumped to her feet, still half asleep, lost her balance and nearly fell into the wall. Laughter calmed her down a little, and she sighed in relief as she recognized Zhane's.

"Sorry," she said, blushing slightly.

"How long have you been back?" he asked.

"Um... It was four, I think." She rubbed her eyes, blinking at him. "What time is it?"

"7:30."

Sylvie gave him a sheepish look. "I wasn't sure what to do, or what day it was, or if my room was even open. Here's the report," she added, holding out the datapad to him.

Zhane shook his head. "You'll need to give it to Andros," he said. "He'll be here in a minute." He reached around her and unlocked the door. "Go on in and sit down. I'll check, but I think your student room is still open." She nodded and he walked down to his own office. She stepped into Andros' and sank down in a much more comfortable chair.

She was awakened a second time by someone shaking her shoulder, and she looked up to see Andros, looking curiously at her. "Damon told me a Ranger had returned," he said. "I thought you'd be in bed."

"Well, I didn't know the procedure, and I didn't know if my bed was even still unoccupied," she admitted. "He told me it was Tuesday, but I didn't know which Tuesday he meant."

Andros chuckled. "I understand."

"Oh." She suddenly remembered. "Here." She handed him her datapad. "That's their report."

He took it, then Zhane knocked on the door and walked in. "Your belongings were moved to a temporary room," he reported. "We needed your bed with the new recruits."

Sylvie nodded wearily. "Great. Where are they? I really need to get some sleep."

Andros nodded. "Definitely. Zhane?"

"With pleasure," he smiled, and gestured for Sylvie to precede him.

"Wait," Andros said, and they both turned to see him with narrowed eyes. "You said you'd tell me who she was."

Sylvie glanced at Zhane with thanks in her heart, then smiled at Andros. "Sylvie Larson, sir, At your service."

Andros stared. "Sylvie? Little Sylvie, Carlos' friend?"

"Yes, sir."

"Stop calling me sir," he said, almost automatically. She smiled.

"It's a habit."

Andros grinned wryly. "I'll call your mother and have her join us for lunch."

"Thank you."

With a nod, he dismissed them. Sylvie followed Zhane through halls still relatively empty. "We got a new class on Monday," he told her.

"Already?" She stumbled slightly. He caught her harm with a grin.

"Yes. I'll send someone to wake you when your Mom gets here." He paused by a door and it slid open. "Activate the lock now." He smiled gently at her. "Sleep well. You deserve it."

As soon as the door closed behind her, she set the lock, crawled in the bed, and slept.

* * *

The door woke her, and she stretched luxuriously before jumping down. The temporary quarters were small, with two closets, so the room was intended for two people, probably two members of a team. It was weird, to be in this between state, not knowing if she'd graduated or what. Well, even if she hadn't, she'd gotten the chance to be a Ranger for at least one mission. The door sounded again, and she started, then changed quickly into the uniform she'd left at the school and opened the door. She grinned widely at her mother, reaching out to hug her. "I'm so proud of you," her mother whispered, then let her go and stepped back. Sylvie blushed slightly when she noticed Andros and Ashley standing just a ways off.

"Sleep well?" Ashley asked.

"Yes, thank you."

"Good," Andros smiled. "Ready for lunch?"

"Definitely," Sylvie said, and smiled ruefully as her stomach growled in punctuation. "I've had enough rations to last me forever."

Ashley chuckled. "Those are better than the ones we had," she said.

Sylvie shook her head. "I don't even want to imagine," she said.

It didn't take them long to get to the cafeteria, and once they'd gotten food, they found a table in a relatively quiet corner. The noise in the room reminded Sylvie of her first few days at the Academy.

"They sound sore," she said with a laugh.

Ashley grinned. "It's Adam's fault," she said. "He's working them hard."

Sylvie nodded. "I have to thank him," she said. "And Mr. Scott."

"Sylvie," her mother said softly, "would you explain to me why you felt you had to keep your presence here a secret from Carlos?"

"Not just from Carlos," Andros told her with a wry grin. "From all of us. Zhane only found out by accident."

"I just... felt that since the school was having such a hard time anyway, I didn't need to add to that by making people think I'd gotten in because of who I knew." Sylvie flushed slightly. "It was hard."

"Mrs. Larson!" Carlos' voice interrupted, and it was obvious he was startled, and pleased. "What... It's good to see you," he stuttered.

She stood up and gave him a hug. "It's good to see you, Carlos. And welcome back."

Sylvie couldn't turn, eyes wide in shock. Ashley hid her smile behind her hand, but Andros didn't try to hide it. "Sit down and join us," he invited the Black Ranger, who shook his head.

"You've got company. I just wanted to ask how Sylvie was."

Sylvie's mother smiled widely and sat down again. "Why don't you ask her yourself?" she asked.

It had given her a chance to calm down, and her smile was real when she turned around. "Hi," she said, almost shyly.

His eyes widened, then he grabbed a nearby chair and collapsed more than sat in it. His brown eyes were wide, disbelieving, and Sylvie barely managed not to laugh. Ashley, however, didn't try to hide it, and Carlos blushed at her laughter. "You knew about this?" he demanded, glaring at Andros.

"Not until Zhane told me this morning," Andros told him.

"How long has he known?"

"Since about two days after that invasion," Sylvie smiled.

Carlos nodded slowly. "I see." He took a deep breath. "Wow. Um. I'm not entirely sure how to even react. Thank you for your help, by the way."

"You're welcome," she said.

"That clears up some stuff," he mused after a minute. "You knew way too much about me, and about Rangers in general."

Sylvie smiled. "I'd hoped you wouldn't notice that and call me on it." She shrugged. "I got to hang out with a bunch of Rangers for a while."

Conversation turned to her adventures in the Parkra system, and she was careful not to say anything that would scare her mother. After a while, the cafeteria emptied, and Andros and Ashley exchanged a glance. "Excuse me a moment," Ashley said, and left the room.

Andros watched her go, then turned to Sylvie. "We're holding a meeting right now. Care to attend?"

Sylvie smiled. "Sure! Can my Mom come?"

Andros nodded. "Oh, definitely."

They all got up and left the room, and Sylvie wondered what it was as they walked down to the main room, where she'd spent so many hours in class and in study. When she would have stopped in the back, Andros took her arm and kept her walking, and with a glance at Carlos, kept him moving as well. They mounted the stand, where the teachers and the Astro Rangers stood in the formation Sylvie had seen them their first day. TJ pulled Carlos into line, where he looked rather uncomfortable. The students quieted as Andros moved to the podium. "Good afternoon," he said. "We had some business to take care of.

"Sylvie Larson was a member of the last class, and missed her graduation ceremony because she was on assignment. I would like to present to you Sylvie Larson, the Chameleon Ranger."

Sylvie's eyes widened in surprise as the students applauded. Zhane had to prod her to move forward, and she stepped up next to Andros. From Andros' other side, Ashley handed him something, then Sylvie's arms were full of a new, light gray uniform that calmed the fluttering in her stomach, if only a little. She couldn't have stopped the smile that crossed her face if she'd wanted to.

She heard little else, and followed whoever pulled her arm to get her off the stand so that the class could continue. She hugged her mother back, then they left the hall. Sylvie found herself in her quarters again, and was told firmly by her mother to change.

When she emerged in her new uniform, she found her mother was gathering her purse and jacket. "Turn around and let me see you," she said softly, so Sylvie modeled for her.

"Do you have to go?" she asked.

"Yes, hon. I do. But Andros said you can come visit now. And when you do, bring Carlos." There was a glint in her mother's eyes she didn't trust, but she nodded anyway.

"Thanks for coming," she said as they walked out to the main doors.

"I'm glad I could do it," her mother said, and they paused before she walked out. "I love you, Sylvie."

"Love you, too, Mom," she said, and they parted.

She wasn't alone long; by the time she'd reached the first stairway, she had a companion. "How does it feel to be a Ranger?" Carlos' voice asked gently.

"I don't know," she smiled. "I haven't had time to get used to it. Why did you go to Triforia?"

He was silent for a while, until they'd nearly reached her quarters. "A friend of mine wanted to see me," he said finally.

"Oh? Why?"

"I was... working for her father, and actually... I guess I helped prevent an overthrow on Triforia about a year ago."

Sylvie opened her door and gestured for him to go in. "So the rest of the universe finally knows what I always knew about you," she said softly.

He turned with one eyebrow lifted. "Oh? What is that?"

"That you're a hero." She blushed at her own audacity.

His eyes widened. "Oh. Thank you," he stuttered.

"What will you do now?" she asked, breaking the silence that had fallen heavily between them.

"I'm not sure," he admitted as she sat down and indicated that he should join her. "TJ offered me a position on the security team, but I'm not certain that's what I'd like to do."

"Recruitment?"

He laughed. "No."

"What about teaching? Or the entrance physicals?" He was shaking his head before she finished, and a terrible thought occurred to her. "Do you want to stay?" she asked tentatively, almost afraid of the answer.

A serious expression she didn't remember crossed his face. "Yes, I'll be staying," he told her, and she nodded, swallowing her expression of relief.

"Good," she managed to get out.

He smiled. "I just wanted to see how you were doing, and to extend an invitation to an informal gathering down at Adelle's," he told her. "Meet me at the front doors at 6:30 in civilian clothes, and I'll take you down, okay?"

She nodded. "Okay."

"I also suggest getting some sleep between now and then," he added, and stood. "Andros wanted to talk to me, so I'd better go."

"Thanks for coming," she said, and let him out. With a grateful sigh, she sank back down on the bed and went to sleep.

The drive to town was full of talk. He asked her what had really happened on her mission, so she regaled him with what she'd left out so she wouldn't worry her mother. He was laughing, more at the incredulity than because it was funny, when they pulled up in front of the Surf Spot. "He didn't."

"He did! Wrapped in blue to fight off color withdrawal. It had to have been a dare."

"They didn't tell you?"

She shrugged. "They said it was an inside joke."

"Still." He laughed again. "I'll have to ask him about it when they get back."

Inside, they found the party already underway. Carlos was swept off by Ashley almost immediately, so Sylvie ventured in, alone. She recognized some people, a few of the teachers, but that was it. Taking a deep breath, she started talking to people.

She was conversing animatedly about the school when the gentleman she was talking to excused himself and was pulled away by someone else. Taking a deep breath, she gathered her thoughts before diving back in, and someone touched her arm.

"You made it."

"You sound surprised." She turned to face her ex-boyfriend, Geoff, who'd insisted going to the Academy was a dumb thing for her to do.

"Pleasantly so, believe me," he said. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smirking, and didn't answer. "Are you busy tomorrow night?" She stared at him in disbelief, then tried to remember if anyone had saidanything about dating when she was on active duty. Then she realized she didn't know what her status was or anything else.

Carlos' arrival was timely, and saved her from answering as he took her arm familiarly. "Hey, Sylvie. Andros wants to talk to you. Got a minute?"

"Yes." She cast one last smile at Geoff, who was staring at Carlos. She was sure she saw jealousy in Geoff's face. And she planned on doing nothing at all to get rid of it.


	18. We Can Change Things, Never Doubt it

Writer's Note: This is it. Thanks so much to all of you who came with me - and a special thanks to those who let me know you were reading. I hope to have a sequel to this, one day. Hopefully not the two years it took me the LAST time I wrote a sequel...

* * *

Epilog: "We Can Change Things, Never Doubt it" - INXS, _Dancing on the Jetty_

Sylvie nervously brushed her blonde hair away from her face. "Why did I ever let it grow?" she wondered out loud.

A hand gently took hers. "I think you said once that you were jealous of your roommates."

She laughed, turning to face Carlos, who looked stunning - if uncomfortable - in his court dress. "Did I tell you that one of them was the one that nearly got you killed?"

He chuckled. "No, I can't say that you did."

Her other hand reached up, and he captured that one, too. "Leave it. You look beautiful."

She blushed. "Thank you, oh hero." She eyed the medal resting on his chest. "So, am I here to be your escort, or are you here to be mine?" she teased.

He laughed, his cheeks tinted pink like they always were when she called him hero. "It's a mutual thing. How's your leg?"

She shifted slightly, and hid a wince. "Well enough to walk this hall."

"Trey would have let you ride, you know. He offered."

Sylvie shook her head. "I'm not that incapacitated. Besides, how good will that look if I have to be carried down the hall? Trey's advisors would take one look at me and refuse to have a branch of the school here."

An odd sensation, if a familiar one, slid up her arm, her neck and into her ear, interrupting the flow of her argument. Quicksilver extended from the ear piece to create a small microphone for her to talk into. "Chameleon," she said sharply.

"I'm sorry." Andros' voice was a little tinny. "You're needed."

Sylvie smiled tightly. "I'm sure Trey will understand."

Carlos let her hands go, a sad smile on his face. "I'll explain."

Sylvie nodded her thanks, and limped toward the window. "Where, and who?" She'd morphed before she'd reached the window, and was out it before Andros had given her all the specifics.

It took her a while to find her window when she returned. She landed ungracefully, demorphing as she did, and collapsed. To her surprise, she didn't land on the floor, but into someone's arms. She was too tired and in too much pain to care who it was, just glad that someone was there. That someone lifted her and carried her gently to her bed, where she finally lost consciousness.

When she awoke, there was sun in her eyes. The downside to waking was that the pain was back, if muted. She groaned low and tried to get up. It took her two tries to sit up, and the cup of water on the table next to the bed looked really good. Once she'd drunk that, she looked around again.

Her dress, a gift from Trey's wife, lay across one of the low, comfortable chairs that sat before the fireplace, bloodstained and ripped and completely unwearable. At the foot of the bed, in the large, overstuffed arm chair, Carlos sat, slumped like Delilah when Sylvie had played with her. He was asleep, looking like the teenager he'd been when she'd first met him. It was his eyes that made him look old. She sighed and moved to actually get out of bed, and that elicited a louder groan from her.

Carlos started awake and was at her side in an instant. "Hey, you're not supposed to be up," he said, firmly pushing her back onto the bed.

"Don't you have your own quarters?" she teased as he made her sit back down.

"Yes," he said, "but Andros told me you were pretty beat up, and I know the Rangers you've hung out with. Stubborn will seems to be inherent. I think it comes with the powers."

She smiled as he made her lay down. "Was Trey angry?"

He chuckled, pulling the blankets up to her chin. "No. Some of his councilors were not too happy, but there isn't much they can do, with Trey on one side and Kyeri on the other."

"Are they going to allow us to have a branch of the school here?"

"They haven't decided yet. They still want to talk to you."

She crinkled her face. "Oh, great. And I don't have a dress to wear any more," she lamented, gesturing to where her ruined one lay. "I should probably just go in my uniform, anyway."

Carlos kissed her forehead. "You stay put. I'll find you a large breakfast."

She grabbed his hand as he started to move away. "Thank you. For being there last night," she said softly. "It's great to have a friend like you."

He smiled. "Of course," he told her, just as softly and a little wistfully, and left the room.


End file.
